Innit?

[thestrangequark]

"Pox" is indecent? If she were writing an essay about the history of deadly epidemics, would she spell it "smallp-x"?

Is that some sort of Britishism?

Tit, by contrast, I sort of get, but the only fun part of Scrabble is the off chance of spelling vulgar words.

It's part of the fun, at least!

As to the use of these words, I feel a bit ambiguous about it. I always feel it's taking the easy way out, but rationally I can't find any reason to prohibit them. And I have succumbed to the temptation of za -- but what else can one do when presented the opportunity of scoring over 50 points with one tile?

 

[scotpens]

. . . When using 'tit' when playing Scrabble it could be referring to any of a number of species of bird. Not vulgar at all.

Wanna see a pair of Great Tits?

Anyway, when you’re playing Scrabble at home with family and friends, you can use whatever rules you want as long as they’re agreed on beforehand. As far as I’m concerned, if it’s in the dictionary, it’s fair game.

 

[Myasishchev]

"Pox" is indecent? If she were writing an essay about the history of deadly epidemics, would she spell it "smallp-x"?

Is that some sort of Britishism?

Tit, by contrast, I sort of get, but the only fun part of Scrabble is the off chance of spelling vulgar words.

It's part of the fun, at least!

As to the use of these words, I feel a bit ambiguous about it. I always feel it's taking the easy way out, but rationally I can't find any reason to prohibit them. And I have succumbed to the temptation of za -- but what else can one do when presented the opportunity of scoring over 50 points with one tile?

What's a za? The Russian preposition?

I had a friend who used "qat" (the East African plant) shamelessly, despite how that is not the commonest transliteration. Fucking annoying, and as far as I'm concerned it's borderline cheating--Q is not a high-score letter because it's easy to make words with.

 

[thestrangequark]

^I am too ashamed to speak of it. It's worse than qat, even!

 

[Myasishchev]

^I am too ashamed to speak of it. It's worse than qat, even!

When young people today speak casually of ordering a za, "pizza," they are unwittingly producing an expression that is quite interesting to language historians. Za derives from the full form pizza by a process known as clipping. Two types of clipping are common in English: dropping the unstressed syllables or syllables not receiving the primary word stress, as in fridge from refrigerator; and dropping all syllables after the first syllable, as in ab, dis, porn, and vibe, whether or not the first syllable was originally stressed. In the case of za, the syllable that was dropped was originally stressed and was the first syllable, which is unusual. Rents for "parents," is another recent example of the same kind of clipping. Interestingly, we don't need to stay in the realm of contemporary youth slang to see the results of this unusual process. The words phone, bus, and wig (from telephone, omnibus, periwig) belong to Standard English but had their start as slangy or catchy neologisms formed by clipping stressed syllables, just like za. Who knows whether in fifty years za and rents will be as widely accepted as phone and wig are now?

AS WELL YOU SHOULD BE.

 

[thestrangequark]

^It was 62 points for one tile! What can I say? We all have our price.

 

[BlobVanDam]

I'm glad that nobody I would play Scrabble with would allow this crap. I don't care what words Scrabble wants to technically allow, the acceptable words are decided by the people who play the game. Regardless of the official rules, there are people who would remain very strict about using slang, and others who would allow any word they use. And that's all ok. As long as everyone playing is fine with it, it doesn't matter. It's a game after all.
But using a term like "thang" or "innit" seems like cheating to me, because they're NOT words to me, and I know that nobody I know would have fun allowing these words on a technicality.

I rarely play Scrabble as I prefer Upwords but I don't really think of 'innit' and 'grrl' as proper words.

Likewise. Upwords is awesome. Not all that challenging, but a lot of fun.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Easy, COISTRIL or TROCHIL(S) -- optionally using the S as part of a follow-on.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

I don't care what words Scrabble wants to technically allow, the acceptable words are decided by the people who play the game. Regardless of the official rules, there are people who would remain very strict about using slang...

Keep fighting the good fight against those oppressive thugs at Hasbro, you brave Scrabblerouser.

 

[captcalhoun]

i gots to do ma thang, grrl. innit? ya feel me?

 

[scotpens]

I know that “za” is slang for pizza, but I’ve never heard anyone actually use it.

i gots to do ma thang, grrl. innit? ya feel me?

Aw, go feel yourself!

 

[RoJoHen]

The only people I've ever heard use "za" in practice were really, really douchey.

 

[Holdfast]

The only people I've ever heard use "za" in practice were scrabble players.

FTFY.

I don't play very often, but as far as I'm concerned, sharp practice is very much to be encouraged. The more obscure and borderline-cheating a word seems, the better!

 

[ITL]

Although things can get a little heated...

 

[Holdfast]

^ I loved that show.

 

[danellis]

askoxford.com - the oxford dictionaries website, only lists ZA as an abbreviation for South Africa

• ZA

abbreviation

• South Africa (international vehicle registration).

Origin:

from Dutch Zuid Afrika


country occupying southernmost part of continent of Africa
View entry
existing, occurring, or carried on between nations
View entry
thing used for transporting people or goods, especially on land
View entry
series of letters and figures identifying motor vehicle
View entry
language of Netherlands, spoken by some 20 million people
View entry
Subject

abbreviationSouth Africa (international vehicle registration).
Origin:


from Dutch Zuid Afrika


country occupying southernmost part of continent of Africa
View entry
existing, occurring, or carried on between nations
View entry
thing used for transporting people or goods, especially on land
View entry
series of letters and figures identifying motor vehicle
View entry
language of Netherlands, spoken by some 20 million people
View entry




ZA





Line-break:

• On
• Off

abbreviation

• South Africa (international vehicle registration).

dJE

 

[stoneroses]

languages are constantly evolving and there is nothing you can do about it

 

[iBender]

It is.

That's what I've held back from saying, until now.
Innit isn't slang for 'it is', no. Innit is just a broken bastardised way of saying
"Isn't it so?"

So when ever I hear anyone saying
"innit"...
(Who isn't me.)
I often find myself thinking 'It is'...

 

[thestrangequark]

bfore whe when to the restaurn t and had two pitchers of sangrua my romom mate and i shared a bottle of merlot and played scrabble and we gt too tipsy to finish. However, we discussed slang and its usage in the game and agreed that it's a quarilous dibate. On the one hand you are tryng to apply an false official-ness to somethin g that is every fluent and evolving (languae) and therefore rejects by the ery nature of its being somehting so artificial and arbitrary as teh rules that we are trying to impise by rejectiuonf slagn, on the other hand the very nature of gameplay requires clearly defined rule s and codes of conduct which cannt be ignored. it's like saying that a persin, regardless of age, should behave eactly the same in ay given scenerio, when, of course, anny rational person knows that as individuals w e grow nd change. So too does language, Aslways changing and evolving.

By th e way, even though i was drunk I won by 300 pnts! I got threeo bungos inculting "LEPTONs" and "martinis" and "machete: ! THen we had dinner and the bartender thought we were cute so brought us feree taquila!

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

the bartender thought we were cute so brought us feree taquila!

I hope he wasn't making fun of you. Because then he'd be...

wait for it...

a Tequila mockingbird.

as individuals w e grow nd change. So too does language, Aslways changing and evolving.

And we're seeing that play out right here!