Lhe small world of Scrabble is rebelling against the game’s publishing company. Mattel, the gaming and entertainment giant, has taken the drastic decision to remove 400 words from the official list of authorized words in the English version of the game, such as the report our colleagues from Figaroin particular angering members of the competitive scene.
It is for Scrabble to adapt to the times by being more “inclusive”, according to the company Mattel. Thus are now banned racial insults, homophobic or towards the elderly. Overall, a long series of terms considered “offensive” will no longer be accepted in competition, in the official rules.
Wrongly prohibited words?
But the gaming community is surprised by the strange presence of certain words in this list. The daily takes the example of the term “Jesuit”, which designates what relates to the religious order of the Jesuits. If the word “Jesuitical” is generally used in a pejorative way to evoke something concealed, hypocritical, it still represented a potential blow to 200 points.
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According to columnist Jonathan Maitland, quoted by Le Figaro, the change is described as “incongruous” and “insignificant” by the Scrabble community. Because, it is considered, if it is obviously preferable to avoid using certain words, their existence is a fact which Scrabble must take into account. Jonathan Maitland recalls that Darryl Francis, who co-wrote the list of allowed words in Scrabble in 1980, used to recall: “Words only become insults when used with derogatory intent. »
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