this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2025
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Scrabble players quit game after 400 offensive words banned from list (www.news.com.au)
submitted 1 day ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 55 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)
  1. I don't think the competitive Scrabble scene (of which there is a very intense one) really needs to be in charge of the game for everybody. But I get why that contingent is incredibly upset. The set of allowed words is locked in stone, such that people practice and optimize particular memorizations around the particular set of words, and they are barely words at that point, just random collections of letters that form the stepping-stones in their grand strategic endeavor. There are Scrabble experts who do not speak the language, just have memorized the words and are good at the strategy. I get why they're upset.
  2. They're not releasing the exact list, which is automatically a red flag of some fuckery to me.
  3. Nonetheless it has been confirmed that “Paki,” “fenian,” and “shiksha” are all on the banned list. Bro what?
  4. "Bitch," "faggot," and "slut" are all still in the game. 👍

Deciding the list of officially banned words was always going to be a hopeless task, but even within that it looks like they've been doing a bad job.

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/news-life/uproar-over-scrabble-words-that-can-no-longer-be-used/news-story/bb72350938e787cf5566c01109c98dd0

Edit: Uncapitalized

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago

Is "jew" still on the list? That one didn't make a damn bit of sense.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Those 3 would already have been banned for being proper nouns, wouldn't they?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

"Paki" maybe. The other two I don't think are.

I think it's especially hilarious that "fenian" is a slur. For any Irish person for whom it would become relevant at all, I feel like if you called them a "fenian" they would swell with pride.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 day ago (1 children)

a pakistani woman I knew explained to me that Paki was deeply offensive and that I should never use it, but she knew I probably didnt know that. she did suggest I never use it again unless I was trying to upset someone

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Yes, but presumably if avoiding that situation was the goal they would have removed "faggot." I can't even really understand what is the reasoning which might have led them to be extremely aggressive about finding weird slurs that very few people use to root out and remove, while leaving the ones that are actual issues alone. In some way, I think the impotence of the final decision set is somehow connected with the performative nature of it all. Maybe? I have no idea.

Ultimately it seems like they're just trying to fit in with the times as their clueless executives understand them. I think they're a few years behind the times, though, actually. Maybe if they were a little more hip they would be trying to release a "free speech" Scrabble with a bunch of new words added and with "liberal" and "woke" removed, now that the 2010s' brand of stupid performativeness is being replaced with a new type of performativeness that's different and much darker.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

Here in the uk , the P word is probably the most offensive word you could use against a person of Indian descent. Up there with the n word. removed (f word) is also probably the most offensive slur you can use in reference to gay people. It's correct that they banned them.

Guessing you're from America where being offensive is cool. Historically people used to justify the n word based on the origins rather than the highly offensive connotations.

UK ain't woke, just has some acceptance that people from different backgrounds have some value rather than pandering to grumpy white folk who care about nothing but themselves and how inconvenient it is to possibly consider other words.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Faggot is a real word with actual, non offensive, meanings, 'paki' is not.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 day ago (2 children)

No. It absolutely is not. Historically it did sure, but I challenge you to go to any corner of the English-speaking world and use it in any sentence at all and have any single person hear you and assume that you mean a bundle of sticks.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 hours ago

The last time I was in the UK they still called cigarettes fags, so who knows

[–] [email protected] 3 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Faggots can also be meatballs, you can walk in to a supermarket and buy some faggots, or make them yourself.

The use to mean "a bundle of sticks" is definitely more rare now-a-days though, you're correct.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 22 hours ago

Like I said, using the UK is cheating (I guess I should have specified that). I can take a walk down Butthole Lane, look up the bus schedule from Shitterton to Twatt, and then I can go pick up 6 faggots for £1.60. It's all just part of the nature of the place.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'm not able to see the removed word and my mind is running wild with imagination. Can you give me the first letter?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

B*lg*um

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Only thing I can think of with faggot is that on the UK at least that's a organ based dish

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faggot_(food)

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 day ago

The UK doesn't count man. If that's the metric for obscenity then everything is allowed.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Butthole+Ln,+Shepshed,+Loughborough,+UK/@52.776606,-1.2752399,17z

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

  1. This article is 3 years old.

  2. Good luck finding the actual list. This redditor apparently compiled one themselves. https://www.reddit.com/r/scrabble/comments/my5tie/the_419_words_erased_from_csw/

  3. Like all censorship: this is ineffectual and incomplete. Do enjoy digging around the list of words still allowed "because they have secondary nonoffensive definitions" like bitch, cunt, asshole, suckhole, sonofabitch, and of course....

FUCK FUCKED FUCKER FUCKERS FUCKFACE FUCKFACES FUCKHEAD FUCKHEADS FUCKING FUCKINGS FUCKOFF FUCKOFFS FUCKS FUCKUP FUCKUPS FUCKWIT FUCKWITS

[–] [email protected] 9 points 22 hours ago

Holy shit, my sides.

ASPIE
ASPIES

...

BUBBA (?)

...

BULLDIKE
BULLDIKES
BULLDYKE
BULLDYKES
BUMBOY
BUMBOYS
CHINKIE
CHINKIES
CHOLO
CHOLOS
COCKSUCKER
COCKSUCKERS

...

DAGO
DAGOES
DAGOS
DARKEY
DARKEYS
DARKIE
DARKIES
DARKY
DIKEY
DIKIER
DIKIEST
DOGAN
DOGANS
DYKEY
DYKIER
DYKIEST
FAGGERIES
FAGGERY
FAGGIER
FAGGIEST
FAGGOTIER
FAGGOTIEST
FAGGOTRIES
FAGGOTRY

Okay, on some of these, they have a point lol.

Also, I got curious and scrolled down to "N", and all I can say is holy holy shit man. I get it. People cherry-picked out some stupid decisions, but it honestly makes a lot of sense now that I can see the list. I also understand why they didn't publish the list...

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Unacceptable tbh

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago

It’s in urban dictionary. It means “to be honest”

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 day ago

My grandma, a very sweet, timid small old lady, once threw down a "C U N T" then innocently said, "What? It's a word."

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

Well that sure is of them.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

"scores" = groups of 20

so somewhere between 40 and 100 players quit the game because they couldn't say a racial slur. In a game with apparently 2.5 million daily players. That can't be right. In a playerbase that size I'd expect the percentage of bigots with no life to be somewhere in the tens of thousands.

Guess it was a slow news day

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago

I feel like the amount of bigots in a game that requires knowing lots of words is below the population average.

But not THAT far.

[–] brian 1 points 1 day ago

So I get why they didn't, but I'm very irked that they don't have a list of the banned words. I'm just curious how they came up with 400 inappropriate words.

[–] humanspiral -1 points 1 day ago

But those are the only ones I know, asswipes.