Devo, onesie and vape make new Scrabble word list

IT MAY seem ridic, but lotsa street slang and techie terms have been included in the latest official bible for players of the world’s favourite word game.

Lolz, shizzle and cakehole are among ,500 new words added to the existing quarter of a million in the latest Collins Scrabble word list. Picture: PA

Devo, onesie and vape are among thousands of new entries that have been added to the official Scrabble word list.

Collins, which publishes the list of all words that can be used in the popular board game, has just added a further 6,500 to the existing line up of 250,000.

Words used on social media, in texts and on the street are now available to fans of the traditional game.

Making their debut in the list are lolz (laughs) and bezzy (best friend), which are joined by tweep (person who uses Twitter) and tuneage (music).

Others reflect modern society, trends and events, such as devo (devolution, as in devo-max), vape (to puff an e-cigarette), onesie (all-in-one suit) and twerking (hip-gyrating dance).

The new word list also recognises the role technology plays in daily life with the inclusion of facetime, hashtag and sexting.

Scrabble opponents are also now able to challenge each other with exclamations such as augh, blech, eew, grr and yeesh.

For the most competitive Scrabblers, the highest-scoring new words may be the most important. These include quinzhee (an Inuit snow shelter – 29 points) and checkbox (28).

“Dictionaries have always included formal and informal English, but it used to be hard to find printed evidence of the use of slang words,” said Helen Newstead, head of language content at Collins.

“Now people use slang in social media posts, tweets, blogs, comments and text messages.”

Simon Gillam, secretary of the Scottish Scrabble Association, says it is crucial for competitive players to stay abreast of modern language.

“For Scrabble to be played worldwide we need to agree a common dictionary,” he said.

“Although there are some words that might seem ridiculous to a British player, if they are in common use in other English-speaking countries I think we have to adopt them.”

The board game was invented in 1933 by American architect Alfred Mosher Butts. It was originally known as Lexiko and then Criss Cross Words. Scrabble as we know it was born in 1948.

The game has reached a new band of modern players, with digital versions available online and as downloadable apps.

Collins Official Scrabble Words contains words from the UK, Australia, Canada, South Africa and the US.

New to international language of Scrabble

• Bezzy - best friend

• Cakeages - charges in a restaurant for serving cake brought in from outside

• Cakehole - mouth

• Dench - excellent

• Devo - short for devolution

• Geocache - search for hidden containers using GPS as a recreational activity

• Lolz - laughs at someone else’s or one’s own expense

• Lotsa - lots of

• Newb - newbie

• Obvs - obviously

• Ridic - ridiculous

• Onesie - one-piece garment combining a top with trousers

• 0Podiumed - past tense of podium, finish in the top three places in a sporting competition

• Shizzle - a form of US rap slang

• Shootie - type of shoe that covers the ankle

• Thanx - thank you

• Tuneage - music

• Twerking - type of dance involving rapid hip movement

• Vape - to inhale nicotine vapour (from an electronic cigarette)

• Wuz - non-standard spelling of was