Scrabble bans 'boobies' and 'farting'

There are many words and phrases that are universally considered to be offensive or rude, like those of the swear word variety.

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Some words, depending on language, geography, and other factors, can be offensive to one person, but not necessarily to others.

Now you might be wondering, what on earth does this have to do with Scrabble?

Well, seeing as the objective of the game is to earn the most points by assembling words (that already exist), knowing which words are allowed can prove vital.

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Especially if you are competing in official Scrabble competitions and tournaments.

Many competitive and expert Scrabble players are currently up in arms after the new list of banned words was revealed.

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As mentioned, many agree that swearwords and other offensive/slur terms should not be allowed, but these players are quite annoyed with the fact that the list of "offensive" words is getting out of hand.

And they're blaming the woke police (Woke is a term that is used to describe alertness to social injustice e.g. racism).

Mattel, the toy company that owns the rights to Scrabble outside of the U.S., has announced that they are planning on removing hundreds of "offensive" words from gameplay.

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Now we say "offensive" because whether or not "farting" is truly offensive is still up for debate.

We can all agree that unlike the act of flatulence, which can be quite repulsive, the word seems to be pretty harmless.

And some of the rude and crude terms that have now been removed are more comical than rude.

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To give you a better idea of what we mean, here is a list of just some of the words that have officially been banned from the game:

• boobies 
• arses
• goolies (slang for testicles in Britain, a stone or pebble in Australia)
• wrinkles (considered a derogatory term used for referring to old people)
• boffing (slang for sexual intercourse)
• farting
• fatso

Two-time British Scrabble champion, Craig Beevers, spoke to The Scottish Sun and has some very real concerns.

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The list has not yet been implemented fully, but the company has hinted at a complete list of around 400 forbidden words.

While this may be very sad news for many Scrabble players, luckily these words have only been excluded from play in the U.K... for now.

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The company is eventually hoping to push this ban worldwide and Scrabble associations will be left with the following option: choose to accept the new list or cease using the Scrabble name at all.

This purge should not actually be such a shock as in 2020, The North American Scrabble Players Association eliminated 236 words, which included racial slurs and other bigoted terms from its official list. 

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Well done to these organisations for striving to become more inclusive and accepting of others.

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Main image courtesy of iStock