About ten or twenty years ago, somebody complained that the word "Jew" was in the Scrabble dictionary. The definition listed it as a verb with a negative connotation, I think, and the person was offended. So, the company (Hasbro?) removed it and about 100 other "offensive" terms from the Scrabble dictionary.
But then the hard-core tournament players got pissed that words they regularly used were removed. So, Hasbro compromised by making one dictionary to be sold in regular stores for the average Joe, while the tournament people could have another dictionary with all the verboten words. But they also decided to remove all of the definitions.
Of course there also a difference between the dictionary that the Americans use and everyone else in the world uses. And I haven't quite figured out what dictionary Words with Friends uses, but I love the fact that you can try anything without getting penalized...unlike the official Scrabble CD-ROM.
I'm glad some people have explained that it's because it's a Proper Noun. You'd get the same response if you tried "Spanish", "Beyonce", or "America". Nothing to get upset about here.
I may be wrong here, but I didn't take this post as Ken literally upset that he couldn't play the word, but as sort of a joke about the phrasing of the rejection. "...hebrew is not an acceptable word." Wordplay, huzzah!
I certainly might be wrong. I suppose I just assume that most folks know that proper nouns/adjectives are not playable in this and similar games. Hebrew is both a proper noun and a proper adjective, hence the non-playability.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure Ken was having a bit of fun, but some folks seemed genuinely upset. Then again, maybe not. It's hard to read tone over the Internet!
20 comments :
Scrabble never had bans like that.
Pretty sure Jews is unacceptable too.
in Angry Words (a similar game) the word jewish is not accepted too. (ciao from Italy)
yet "heb" is totally acceptable...
I'm sorry, I actually meant Letterpress. I play too many games at once! :)
If it makes you feel any better,
Words with Friends, won't allow the word "slut" either.
Come to think of it -- that might not make you feel better.
Sorry.
You should stop playing that meshugge game, and start exclusively playing Schmattagories.
About ten or twenty years ago, somebody complained that the word "Jew" was in the Scrabble dictionary. The definition listed it as a verb with a negative connotation, I think, and the person was offended. So, the company (Hasbro?) removed it and about 100 other "offensive" terms from the Scrabble dictionary.
But then the hard-core tournament players got pissed that words they regularly used were removed. So, Hasbro compromised by making one dictionary to be sold in regular stores for the average Joe, while the tournament people could have another dictionary with all the verboten words. But they also decided to remove all of the definitions.
Of course there also a difference between the dictionary that the Americans use and everyone else in the world uses. And I haven't quite figured out what dictionary Words with Friends uses, but I love the fact that you can try anything without getting penalized...unlike the official Scrabble CD-ROM.
It's a proper noun. Proper nouns have never been allowed in Scrabble.
wg
Proper nouns aren't allowed.
I figured Words with friends was invented by the Jews, I've used nu, gonif, sabras, shul, and a few other Yiddish/ Hebrew words.
Yep. A while back I was playing and tried "Jew" and it said it wasn't a word. So naturally I took a screenshot and sent it to some people in LA :)
I'm glad some people have explained that it's because it's a Proper Noun. You'd get the same response if you tried "Spanish", "Beyonce", or "America". Nothing to get upset about here.
I may be wrong here, but I didn't take this post as Ken literally upset that he couldn't play the word, but as sort of a joke about the phrasing of the rejection. "...hebrew is not an acceptable word." Wordplay, huzzah!
I certainly might be wrong. I suppose I just assume that most folks know that proper nouns/adjectives are not playable in this and similar games. Hebrew is both a proper noun and a proper adjective, hence the non-playability.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure Ken was having a bit of fun, but some folks seemed genuinely upset. Then again, maybe not. It's hard to read tone over the Internet!
By the way, I used Tora in WWF yesterday!
Is Hebrew a proper noun or a proper adjective?
few weeks back, i played "JEW" in Scrabble. next turn, i added "-ED", for "JEWED".
no, it's not great semantically, but that's not what Scrabble is about, and besides, the points were good!
my opponent messaged me that i was a horrible person for playing such an offensive word, and then resigned.
...win!
so, maybe WwF is trying to avoid situations like that.
They don't take Zion either. I remember trying it a couple years ago.
WTF?!?!?!
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