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OT: Question about SCRABBLE brand crossword game

Posted By: Nack Ballard
Date: Saturday, 20 November 2010, at 9:25 p.m.

In Response To: OT: Question about SCRABBLE brand crossword game (Timothy Chow)

I'm not a serious SCRABBLE player, so I'm curious: who decided which words to cut between the 2nd and 3rd editions? Did "jew" not get removed, and if not, why not?

Paraphrasing from this site:

Judith Grad, an art gallery owner, challenged JEW one day and lost her turn. She was outraged and wrote to Merriam-Webster, demanding that this and other offending words be removed from the dictionary. Merriam-Webster replied, "[the] slurs are part of the language and reputable dictionaries record them as such." She wrote to Milton Bradley, who responded, "As a dictionary, it is a reflection of words currently used in our language."

Persistent, Judith wrote to the Anti-Defamation League, B'nai B'rith, and the NAACP, but without satisfaction. She then went after the media: "I am livid. Scrabble is a game. These words have no business in a dictionary used to support a game." She branded Scrabble a "game of hate".

Finally, Ms. Grad approached the National Council of Jewish Women, who mercilessly harassed Hasbro, the parent company of Milton Bradley. So, in answer to your question, it was Hasbro who excised the words, and without the consent of the NSA (National Scrabble Association) nor Merriam-Webster. Hence, the "bowdlerized" OSPD3 (and OSPD4).

JEW and NEGRO, etc., are in OSPD2 (The Official Scrabble Players' Dictionary, 2nd edition), but not in OSPD3 nor the current edition OSPD4.

The consequence of 167 words (including PISSED) being excised? Thousands of Scrabble players up in arms. "A word game is no place for a moral crusade." The OSPD3 was shunned and renamed ESPD (Expurgated Scrabble Players Dictionary). Tournament boycotts were threatened until the NSA created a supplemental "Tournament and Club" page with the 167 still-acceptable words that was inserted into copies of the OSPD3 for challenge purposes. Later, a book was reprinted with the words back in, called OWL (Official Word List). In 2006, just after OSPD4 was printed, OWL2 (a.k.a. TWL06) appeared, which all tournament and club players and directors use. (OSPD3/4 or ESPD is viewed with contempt.)

The British source is, and has been for a long time, OSW (Official Scrabble Words), having been spared the expurgation ordeal. There are many thousands of OSPD/OWL words not in OSW, and vice versa, but overall the OSW is more prolific. Many countries, including Britain, are moving to unification, the combined dictionaries being known as SOWPODS (a run-on anagram/acronym of OSW+OSPD). The USA has been as slow to follow this word unification (of which I am greatly in favor) as they have been to decimalize.

Nack

Messages In This Thread

• OT: Question about SCRABBLE brand crossword game
  Timothy Chow -- Saturday, 20 November 2010, at 8:00 p.m.
  • OT: Question about SCRABBLE brand crossword game
    Nack Ballard -- Saturday, 20 November 2010, at 9:25 p.m.
    • OT: Question about SCRABBLE brand crossword game
      garyo -- Sunday, 21 November 2010, at 2:09 a.m.
      • OT:SCRABBLE rack leave values
        6stones -- Sunday, 21 November 2010, at 3:30 p.m.
        • OT:SCRABBLE rack leave values
          Nack Ballard -- Sunday, 21 November 2010, at 5:35 p.m.
          • OT:SCRABBLE rack leave values
            6stones -- Monday, 22 November 2010, at 10:10 a.m.
    • OT: Question about SCRABBLE brand crossword game
      Daniel Murphy -- Sunday, 21 November 2010, at 2:22 a.m.