London - It's enough to make English language purists shake in their shooties, or perhaps even to lol.
But Scrabble is about to include text-speak and street slang among a range of new words for its ever expanding dictionary.
Why? Because it has to stay dench, obvs. And anyone who cries blech (12 points) can just shut their cakehole (17).
The additions are said to reflect changes in language used by certain sections of modern Britain in e-mails, text messages and on social media.
Thus, it will be perfectly acceptable for players of the popular board game to spell yeesh (an interjection used to express disgust – 11), to use up all those pesky zeds with a shizzle (a form of US rap slang – 18) or amaze their bezzy (best friend – 18) to get podiumed (to finish in the top three places of a competition – 14). Just don’t get in a schvitz (sweat – 24).
The new additions are among 6 500 to join an existing 250 000 accepted by overseers Collins Official Scrabble Words, the first update since 2011.
Shooties, by the way, are shoes that cover the ankle (10 points) and lol is presumably the street plural of laughing out loud at someone’s expense (13). Blech is an interjection expressing disgust (12).
Dench means excellent – (11) and obvs is now official Scrabble-ese for obviously (nine). For those unfamiliar with the kind of language in common parlance for text-speak generations, however, there is still a chance to score. Coqui (a tree-dwelling frog – 16); and quinzhee (an Inuit snow shelter – 29) are among the higher-ranking words. Helen Newstead, head of language content at Collins, said: “Dictionaries have always included formal and informal English, but it used to be hard to find printed evidence of the use of slang words. Now people use slang in social media posts, tweets, blogs, comments, text messages, you name it. So there’s a host of evidence for informal varieties of English.”
Or, to put it another way – the language simply isn’t the way it wuz (accepted non-standard spelling of was – 15). New words in the scrabble dictionary also include: tuneage – music (eight) and showrooming – practice of looking at an item in a shop, comparing prices, then buying it online (20).
Daily Mail