[Browsings]
Triple-Slur Score
Words dropped from recent editions of the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary
From a list, culled by David Bukszpan, of words excluded from the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary’s third and fourth editions, published by Merriam-Webster in 1996 and 2005. In 1993, a player objected to the dictionary’s inclusion of “JEW v -ED, -ING, -S to bargain with — an offensive term,” sparking a letter-writing campaign by the National Council of Jewish Women and the Anti-Defamation League. In 1994, Hasbro agreed to remove offensive terms from ensuing editions of the OSPD. When players responded in outrage at the expurgation, Hasbro created a separate Official Tournament and Club Word List, which contained the eliminated words without definitions. Bukszpan is the author of Is That a Word?: From AA to ZZZ, the Weird and Wonderful Language of Scrabble, out last October from Chronicle Books. April 13, the birthday of Scrabble founder Alfred Mosher Butts (who died in 1993), is National Scrabble Day.
[1] Definitions taken from the OSPD’s 2nd ed.
[2] Gadjo and ginzo appeared only on the OTCWL. Definitions cited are from the 4th ed. of The American Heritage College Dictionary.
[3] The OSPD’s 3rd ed. added a separate entry for hunky: “HUNKY adj HUNKIER, HUNKIEST muscular and attractive.”
BOCHE n pl. -S a German[1]
BUCKRA n pl. -S a white man
COMSYMP n pl. -S one that sympathizes with communist causes
GADJO n pl. GADJE one who is not Gypsy[2]
GINZO n pl. -ZOES a person of Italian birth or descent
HAOLE n pl. -S one who is not a native Hawaiian
HONKEY n pl. -S a white man
HUNKY n pl. -IES an unskilled laborer[3]
JESUITRY n pl. -IES an unethical principle or practice
LIBBER n pl. -S one that supports a liberation movement
OFAY n pl. OFAYS a white person
PAPIST n pl. -S a Roman Catholic
POPERY n pl. -ERIES Roman Catholicism
SHEENIE n pl. -S a Jew
SHEGETZ n pl. SHKOTZIM a non-Jewish boy or young man
SHIKSA n pl. -S a non-Jewish girl or young woman
SKIMO n pl. -MOS an Eskimo
WHITEY n pl. -EYS a white man
