Scrabble To Allow Proper Nouns

Hogwash McFly writes "The rules of the popular word game Scrabble are soon to allow proper nouns. Mattel, the maker of the game, hopes the changes made for a new edition, released this July, will 'add a new dimension' to Scrabble and 'introduce an element of popular culture into the game.' With this rule change, the company hopes to target younger fans and families, although they will continue to sell the traditional version where 'Beyonce' and 'Facebook' are not permitted words." Nobody is listening to my suggestion to penalize by one tile any player who has memorized every two-letter English word.

lower-case-f-acebook is a word....

[Anonymous Coward]

But... a facebook is a directory of faces and names for cramming before a social event.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/facebook

And Facebook was named after facebook.

Hasbro and Mattel

[tepples]

For one thing, the article is about the Mattel version. Hasbro sells Scrabble crossword game in the United States and Canada, while arch-rival Mattel controls it everywhere else, so North Americans need not worry. For another, the article states that Mattel is making the proper name rule optional: "It will continue to sell a board with the original rules."

Re:Was this really necessary?

[Jer]

nor is there (far as I am aware) any professional Scrabble scene so it is not like there is any great need for an official revision of the Scrabble rules.

Don't know what you mean by "professional Scrabble scene" but there are a good number of Scrabble tournaments around the world. I doubt the folks in the Scrabble tournaments play Scrabble as their only job, but there are cash prizes.

I don't know what the tournaments will do with this rule. My guess is that they will ditch it - it would be too hard to adjudicate in a tournament setting, I'd think.

Re:Hmm

[tomhudson]

In the article, they admit that there are no "hard and fast rules". Gee, talk about dumbing down the game - Scrabble to cater to semi-literates [slushdot.com]. Like they even know what a proper noun is ...

Re:Sigh

[biryokumaru]

Could it be they're just trying to stir up controversy to increase their head-space and sell more boxes of Old Faithful (TM) before New and Inferior (TM) becomes the norm?

Ah, yes. The rarely seen New Coke [snopes.com] fallacy.

Re:Hmm

[JDHannan]

it is *NOT* a perfectly cromulent word.  The word is "Kwyjibo"

Embiggen your minds here, people

Re:House Rules

[Anonymous Coward]

Why is "en" in the Scrabble Dictionary as a "spelling" of the pronounciation of the letter "n"

En and em are both printers' units of measure. That's why they are in the dictionary.

Re:Scrabble is produced by Hasbro

[JustOK]

and yet, it turns out, they did, you didn't.

Re:House Rules

[keytoe]

No "spellings" of "letters". Example: Why is "en" in the Scrabble Dictionary as a "spelling" of the pronounciation of the letter "n" ??!?

For the record, 'em' and 'en' are typography terms. Granted, they are derived from the 'spelling' of letters, but they're honest-to-god words at this point.

Re:Hmm

[EL_mal0]

And, interestingly enough, Kwyjibo is a cromulent proper noun. The Kwyjibo iron oxide-Cu-Au deposit can be found in eastern Canada; here's [rncan.gc.ca] a map showing its location.

Re:Acronyms

[ArsonSmith]

It is a Two Letter Acronym. I don't know what you're talking about.

Re:Hmm

[guyminuslife]

I still think that's ambiguous.

For instance, nouveau riche is a French phrase imported into English. Webster's has it listed, but my spellchecker cries bloody murder when it sees me type it. That's two words; Webster's has an entry for nouveau but not for riche. So is riche an English word?

Webster's has anime as a Japanese import, but not otaku or hentai, both of which are also widely used in the English-speaking world.

Queso may be the Spanish word for cheese, but around these parts we use it as an English word to refer specifically to molten nacho cheese, as in chili con queso. Speaking of which, the word nacho is a relatively recent import, and while Webster's doesn't list chili con queso, it does list chili con carne.

I would probably have a lot more to work with, too, if we were speaking a different language, besides English, because so many neologisms in our language make their way around the globe.

Re:Acronyms

[Anonymous Coward]

That has been around for a while. [leettiles.com]