Brits fear for Scrabble crackdown on 'offensive' words
[NYPOST] Toy giant Mattel plans to scrub the U.K. versions of Scrabble of hundreds of "offensive" words — leaving game-loving Brits clutching their "boobies" for fear of losing their "arses."Other prized words, such as "goolies," "wrinklies," "boffing," "farting" and "fatso," may also wind up on the wrong side of the official Scrabble lexicon, British aficionados of the little square tiles now worry.
"The woke brigade is ruining our game," two-time British Scrabble champ Craig Beevers griped to The Scottish Sun.
"I feel this will be the final nail in the coffin for a lot of competitive players," Beevers added.
Mattel, which owns the rights to Scrabble outside the U.S., isn’t tipping its rack of letters just yet — but The Sun claims the game maker’s in-progress list of forbidden words will run to 400, and reportedly be a worldwide push.
"In Scrabble — as in life — the words we choose matter," a Mattel exec told the outlet.
Brett Smitheram, a rep for the Association of British Scrabble Players, told The Post Saturday that words are indeed "being compiled for deletion" by Mattel.
That only matters for official competition. Perhaps it is time to allow the Oxford English Dictionary, unabridged version, to become the official reference for serious players on the far side of the pond. Over here we can perhaps go with the unabridged Webster’s. | Or include Urban Dictionary
Posted by: Fred 2021-03-07 |