Words To The Wise

The new OSPD is out!  That's the Official SCRABBLE Player's Dictionary, but if you're serious about the game you already knew that.  The latest edition adds hundreds of words, as Time magazine notes. Words such as BEATBOX, BROMANCE, BUZZKILL, and that's just the B's.

But Time buries the lead: there are four new two-letter words.  Two-letter words are the lifeblood of the game, its basic building blocks that allow you to add on to what's already there.  These new words are DA, GI, PO and TE.

For years I've been waiting for DA--a common (in some places) shorter version of DAD--to be acceptable.  About time.  I also expected Merriam-Webster to come around on PO, though I thought it would be short for POOR.  To my surprise, it's a chamber pot.

GI and TE caught me by surprise--the former is a garment worn in martial arts (Asian-based words have been helping SCRABBLE a lot in recent years) and TE is another spelling of TI, of Do-Re-Mi fame.

So rejoice, SCRABBLE fans.  There's a new game out there, waiting to be conquered.