• Sanctus@lemmy.worldBanned
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    39
    ·
    2 years ago

    Shouldn’t the official word list just be the dictionary? Isn’t that the point?

    • loudambiance@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      23
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      Which dictionary? Merriam Webster added almost 700 “words” this year, including shit like: TTYL, finsta, bussin, cromulent, doggo, simp, goated, and more. I feel like they are slowly becoming urbandictionary.com.

      • kakes@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        44
        ·
        2 years ago

        I mean, their job is to provide definitions for the words people use in language, not to gatekeep what words are “good enough” to be defined.

        I hear each of the words you’ve listed all the time, they’re part of our language whether we like it or not.

        • loudambiance@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          2 years ago

          My point was more about which dictionary do you use and less about the exact words added. Webster added them, but Oxford and American Heritage didn’t.

            • kakes@sh.itjust.works
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              4
              ·
              2 years ago

              Now I want to play a game of scrabble where you play a complete nonsense word, and your points are the number of Google results for that word - lowest points wins. And maybe you have 5 letters instead of 7.

      • Sanctus@lemmy.worldBanned
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        13
        ·
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        I would rather be able to spell out bussin’ for points than zzzz, aaa, or Mieropoix. At least it is a word people actually use in conversation.

        • deegeese@sopuli.xyz
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          7
          ·
          2 years ago

          Mirepoix is an ordinary word in cooking, but it’s an uncountable noun and they’re inventing a fake plural, like “featherses”.

          • Sanctus@lemmy.worldBanned
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            4
            ·
            2 years ago

            Didnt it specifically say horsefeatherses in one of those comments? I start drawing the line there.

      • merc@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        2 years ago

        Modern dictionaries are descriptive not prescriptive. They don’t tell you how things should be spelled, or what meaning they should have. Instead, they report how things are spelled and what people think they mean in the real world.

      • Sanctus@lemmy.worldBanned
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        15
        ·
        2 years ago

        Something about it just seems to miss the point of the game. You would think their dictionary would be cut down to include commonly known words mixed in with some eccentric ones. If anything, to prevent a situation like this where tournament players are just memorizing gobbledygook for points. Seems like it muttles the fun.

          • Breezy@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            2 years ago

            I have had the most fun when i used to play with categories for double points. Having to explain why such and such belongs is half the fun.