A little more than halfway through the year, the Scrabble Powers That Be pulled a fast one on me and came out with the Fifth Edition of The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, with about 5,000 new words.
Great, I thought. I'm going to have to start over.
But thanks to the Seattle Scrabble Club, I was able to read a list of the new words that were added. My observations:
Great, I thought. I'm going to have to start over.
But thanks to the Seattle Scrabble Club, I was able to read a list of the new words that were added. My observations:
Many of the additions seem to be interjections: aiyee, ew, eew, and eeew (depending on your level of disgust), grr, hoo, meh, mmm, moi (defined as—and this is awesome—"Used instead of 'who me?' to feign surprise when accused of something"), och, oof, argh, augh, bing, nyah, yeow, zowee, and sh, shh, and shhh, depending on how much someone needs to be shushed. I find it interesting how many of these interjections function on a seemingly separate plane of communication—they're more like emoticons than words.
There were the amazingly beautiful words: areg, "areas of shifting desert sand dunes"; bawn, "a meadow for cows"; and the creepily beautiful bibe, "a creature whose crying is an omen of death."
There were a few more units, among them tein, a monetary unit of Kazakhstan and cauri, a former monetary unit of Guinea.
There were slangy shortened terms, like bish, meaning bishop, and lipo, meaning liposuction. Manscape, "to trim or remove a man's body hair to enhance appearance," made me laugh.
There were lots of Australian trees and new yiddish words.
And the surprising ones that made me scratch my head: eruv, "an enclosed area in which Jews are permitted to carry on activities normally forbidden on the Sabbath." There did seem to be a concerted effort to include words from other cultures: I saw more words from Hindu and Inuit traditions (asura, a Hindu demon; amautik, an Inuit woman's parka, which seems pretty random—later on was an atigi, "a type of Inuit parka," which made me wonder if Inuit women can wear atigis, too) and words from Hawii, South Africa, and New Zealand. Also words from computer culture, which is to be expected (listserv, logout).
As for sexist language, ballboy was soon followed by ballgirl, although I personally prefer ballkid. But I am very happy that there is at least a ballgirl. Mamasan is a Japanese woman in a position of authority, which is an interesting term.
And finally, the ones that just made me happy: lopingly, in the manner of one that lopes, worlder, "one who belongs to a specified class, time, domain, or sphere of activity, and ananda, "extreme happiness."
What a great year. I've written up a summary of my experience and I'll post a link here if it ever gets published. Thanks for reading, and may we keep doing so with expanded vocabularies!
There were the amazingly beautiful words: areg, "areas of shifting desert sand dunes"; bawn, "a meadow for cows"; and the creepily beautiful bibe, "a creature whose crying is an omen of death."
There were a few more units, among them tein, a monetary unit of Kazakhstan and cauri, a former monetary unit of Guinea.
There were slangy shortened terms, like bish, meaning bishop, and lipo, meaning liposuction. Manscape, "to trim or remove a man's body hair to enhance appearance," made me laugh.
There were lots of Australian trees and new yiddish words.
And the surprising ones that made me scratch my head: eruv, "an enclosed area in which Jews are permitted to carry on activities normally forbidden on the Sabbath." There did seem to be a concerted effort to include words from other cultures: I saw more words from Hindu and Inuit traditions (asura, a Hindu demon; amautik, an Inuit woman's parka, which seems pretty random—later on was an atigi, "a type of Inuit parka," which made me wonder if Inuit women can wear atigis, too) and words from Hawii, South Africa, and New Zealand. Also words from computer culture, which is to be expected (listserv, logout).
As for sexist language, ballboy was soon followed by ballgirl, although I personally prefer ballkid. But I am very happy that there is at least a ballgirl. Mamasan is a Japanese woman in a position of authority, which is an interesting term.
And finally, the ones that just made me happy: lopingly, in the manner of one that lopes, worlder, "one who belongs to a specified class, time, domain, or sphere of activity, and ananda, "extreme happiness."
What a great year. I've written up a summary of my experience and I'll post a link here if it ever gets published. Thanks for reading, and may we keep doing so with expanded vocabularies!
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