The English language is constantly evolving, so much so that the latest Collins Scrabble Word List now includes over 6,500 new words.
Many English purists would no doubt be appalled by some of the new additions including slang ‘words’ such as ‘lotsa’ (lots of), ridic (ridiculous) and cazh (casual). Words such as ‘thanx’ and ‘lolz’ would send a shiver up many peoples’ spines. There seems to be a very fine line between sticking to the ‘rules’ of the English language and changing the rules completely to reflect how we now speak.
Certain words such as ‘checkbox’, ‘hashtag’ and ‘facetime’ are more comfortable additions that mirror our use of language in the online community so they are familiar enough not to be too offensive. However, many of the words that have made it into the word list would make many people feel lost in their own language. Words like ‘tweep’ (to follow someone on Twitter), ‘dench’ (when something’s really cool) and ‘bezzy’ (best friend) would be foreign to the older demographic.
Even different types of exclamations are included in the new word list, some with questionable spelling, such as ‘waah’, ‘eew’ and ‘yeesh’.
The silver lining to all these new additions – it’s now made those pesky final letters that you usually find yourself stuck with at the end of a Scrabble game so much easier to get rid of!
