Official "SCRABBLE Word of the Day": Dildo

Over at Hasbro.com right now on Sunday afternoon, the official "SCRABBLE Word of the Day" is, er, "DILDO." For 7 points. Click image above for screenshot of full Web page. Scrabble Crossword Board Game (Thanks, Jess Hemerly!)
UPDATE: Well, they've since changed the word to "Triply," but the screenshot of "DILDO" on the Hasbro.com Web page will live on in perpetuity here.

[#1 posted by A New Challenger , February 22, 2009 4:05 PM]

Hah!

This is how most of my games of Scrabble turn out anyway.

[#2 posted by Takuan , February 22, 2009 4:15 PM]

Newfoundland?

[#3 posted by A New Challenger , February 22, 2009 4:17 PM]

That was my second thought, Takuan, but proper names aren't allowed in Scrabble.

[#4 posted by Takuan , February 22, 2009 4:22 PM]

t'aint no proper names on the Rock, bye!

[#5 posted by SC_Wolf , February 22, 2009 4:23 PM]

Hax!

[#6 posted by Roger Stanton , February 22, 2009 4:34 PM]

Grade school kids all over the country must be giggling uncontrollably over this.

[#7 posted by urederra , February 22, 2009 4:36 PM]

@#2... not all newfoundland, just one city.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dildo,_Newfoundland_and_Labrador

(I am picky because you post it first)

[#8 posted by Anonymous , February 22, 2009 4:36 PM]

In the Hasbro URL, it reads "adult-games"...guess they really mean that.

[#9 posted by butfirst , February 22, 2009 4:37 PM]

Aww, look at that happy little word, all cute wooden tiles at jaunty angles!

Even if the SexIsEvilâ„¢ and OMGThinkOfTheChildrenâ„¢ Brigades come down on Hasbro like a ton of brimstone bricks and get it removed, I'm glad that some people would have learnt a new word in a frank, factual way without judgement. Triple-letter score!

[#10 posted by Johnny Cat , February 22, 2009 4:43 PM]

Something strange is going on at that site. Yesterday's word was WTF.

[#11 posted by sullt , February 22, 2009 4:44 PM]

Well the URL does say "adult-games"...

http://www.hasbro.com/games/adult-games/scrabble/home.cfm?page=home

[#12 posted by sehlat , February 22, 2009 4:50 PM]

It's been changed. When I had a look, it read "TRIPLY".

[#13 posted by cory , February 22, 2009 4:55 PM]

Boooo they changed it. I think my favorite part there was the definition. Quite matter-of-fact.

[#14 posted by jfrancis , February 22, 2009 4:55 PM]

Triply here, too.

:(

[#15 posted by sleestax , February 22, 2009 4:59 PM]

BOOOO-URNS!! They changed it already.

[#16 posted by oh not anymore , February 22, 2009 6:05 PM]

Scrabble is a word game, so use any word in the dick-tionary without social restraints.

[#17 posted by Takuan , February 22, 2009 6:08 PM]

how about on-line bOINGbOING dirty scrabble?

[#18 posted by Ian70 , February 22, 2009 6:12 PM]

Far as I know, Dildo -is- in the Scrabble(tm) player's dictionary. If ya don't like it you can go stuff something somewhere.

[#19 posted by tinyhonkshus , February 22, 2009 6:22 PM]

It's not a very good definition, frankly. You couldn't like, use it after a nasty accident.

[#20 posted by Anonymous , February 22, 2009 6:28 PM]

You got your dildo in my subtext!

[#21 posted by Anonymous , February 22, 2009 6:28 PM]

Oh my god! The first time I ever heard this word was when my mom played it in scrabble! haha I was like... "mommy, whats a dildo?" and she just laughed rediculously

[#22 posted by Chustar , February 22, 2009 6:44 PM]

Also kinda awesome, the ads at the top of this article have a "related items" and gues what's at the top? Hulk Hogan!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chustar/3302570828/

[#23 posted by Mr_Voodoo , February 22, 2009 7:14 PM]

"More ways to play on words" indeed. That's a word that can be played on.

[#24 posted by redmcgee , February 22, 2009 7:31 PM]

Funny, Grandma always told me that word didn't count...

[#25 posted by Adam Fields , February 22, 2009 7:37 PM]

My guess is that this is some sort of Oscars reference.

[#26 posted by Tenn , February 22, 2009 8:19 PM]

And I couldn't use 'vagina' today because I was playing with my twelve year old brother and my mother would have said something about it. Sigh.

[#27 posted by Takuan , February 22, 2009 8:29 PM]

http://xkcd.com/492/

[#28 posted by semiotix , February 22, 2009 10:15 PM]

I swear by all I hold dear that the following story is true.

At the 2003 Wisconsin Dells tournament, late in the game and trailing my opponent by almost a hundred points, I had DDEILOS on my rack. I saw DILDOES immediately because in a recent friendly game I'd had a similar rack, but with a blank, and spent ten minutes trying to decide if ODDLIEST* was a word.

The only place to play it on the board was an S-hook with GOOSE. It scored 69 points, and my opponent momentarily forgot that GOOSE can be a verb, so GOOSES isn't just an incorrect plural. Between the points and her lost turn, I came from behind to win the game.

It won the Best Play in my division for the tournament. I thought it was because "DILDOES/GOOSES for 69" tells a story, but it turns out the judges just wanted to see the tournament director have to say "DILDOES" in front of the sweet little old ladies that populate Scrabble tournaments.

[#29 posted by Takuan , February 22, 2009 10:30 PM]

heh hah!

[#30 posted by Manooshi , February 23, 2009 12:14 AM]

@Semiotix #28: Good story.

I have bittersweet feelings toward Scrabble. Not too long ago a friend bought me the game, only to immediately 'borrow' it. C'est le vie. Good thing they're on the cheap.

[#31 posted by Anonymous , February 23, 2009 2:07 AM]

#28: "Between the points and her lost turn, I came from behind to win the game."

I lol'd.

BONUS: One of my captcha "words" is "69". I'm not kidding. This is just getting weird.

[#32 posted by Anonymous , February 23, 2009 3:45 AM]

I'm not sure why they changed the word, they should be proud of the word "dildo".

If it is in the dictionary, and can be used in the game, then own it ! Let's not be puritan bastards.

[#33 posted by poslfit , February 23, 2009 5:12 AM]

I would claim that the competing National SCRABBLE Association Word of the Day

http://www.scrabbleassociation.com/cgi-bin/wotd.pl

is superior because its words are hand-picked, but fear that boingboing readers might be able to find something vaguely salacious about today's word: FLYBLOW.

[#34 posted by John Mark Ockerbloom , February 23, 2009 5:33 AM]

In the 1990s, the third edition of the "Official Scrabble player's dictionary" removed a number of controversial words, which made some schools and home players happy, but really ticked off competitive players. Most tournaments use the full unexpurgated word set, so the "Official" isn't really official now, for the purposes of competition.

Here's a list of the words that were "banned" in the third edition. "Dildo" didn't get cut, but a number of other sexually, scatalogically, and ethnically charged words did.

[#35 posted by Beanolini , February 23, 2009 6:06 AM]

Two things spring to mind;

The Countdown 'wankers' episode, and an elderly relative asking about a Dildo rail at a DIY shop.

[#36 posted by Trent Hawkins , February 23, 2009 7:09 AM]

Murder Face aproves

[#37 posted by Thorzdad , February 23, 2009 9:35 AM]

You can bet some interns are going to be very, very busy this week, removing every potentially embarrassing word from the database.

[#38 posted by herocious , February 23, 2009 10:05 AM]

Here's the most comprehensive write-up I've found on the web about this brief lapse on Hasbro's part. Mistah Jellyfish goes into some of the more interesting details of Scrabble's lexical history and includes an expurgated word list! Check it out here: http://theopenend.com/2009/02/23/scrabble-an-adult-game

[#39 posted by Beanolini , February 23, 2009 11:56 AM]

#33, John Mark Ockerbloom:

Most tournaments use the full unexpurgated word set

I've just written a script to search the tournament dictionaries, so I can present all occurences of 'fuck' from the US/Canada tournament list:

: fuck
: fucked
: fucker
: fuckers
: fucking
: fuckoff
: fuckoffs
: fucks
: fuckup
: fuckups
: motherfucker
: motherfuckers
: motherfucking

And the gratifyingly larger list from the rest of the world's list:

: fuck
: fucked
: fucker
: fuckers
: fucking
: fuckings
: fuckoff
: fuckoffs
: fucks
: fuckup
: fuckups
: fuckwit
: fuckwits
: headfuck
: headfucks
: mindfuck
: mindfucks
: motherfucker
: motherfuckers
: motherfucking
: starfucker
: starfuckers
: starfucking
: starfuckings

[#40 posted by Beanolini , February 23, 2009 11:59 AM]

#33, John Mark Ockerbloom:

Most tournaments use the full unexpurgated word set

I've just written a script to search the tournament dictionaries, so I can present all occurences of 'fuck' from the US/Canada tournament list:

: fuck
: fucked
: fucker
: fuckers
: fucking
: fuckoff
: fuckoffs
: fucks
: fuckup
: fuckups
: motherfucker
: motherfuckers
: motherfucking

And the gratifyingly larger list from the rest of the world's list:

: fuck
: fucked
: fucker
: fuckers
: fucking
: fuckings
: fuckoff
: fuckoffs
: fucks
: fuckup
: fuckups
: fuckwit
: fuckwits
: headfuck
: headfucks
: mindfuck
: mindfucks
: motherfucker
: motherfuckers
: motherfucking
: starfucker
: starfuckers
: starfucking
: starfuckings

[#41 posted by elmow , February 23, 2009 12:07 PM]

Here is a screenshot of the full webpage, lest anyone think the small one was Photoshopped.

[#42 posted by kentbrew , February 23, 2009 2:29 PM]

Perhaps someone's been messing about with Firebug?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kentbrew/3304202467/

[#43 posted by Teller , February 23, 2009 5:16 PM]

Fuckwit is a great word. And a slick way to trash-spell your opponent.

[#44 posted by Sean Blueart , February 23, 2009 7:30 PM]

A snickering junior-high school "pee pee" joke does not one shred of liberty make.

[#45 posted by Takuan , February 23, 2009 8:01 PM]

but poo-poo does.

[#46 posted by Sean Blueart , February 23, 2009 9:52 PM]

Point taken.

[#47 posted by Johnny Cat , February 23, 2009 10:07 PM]

Yes, Kentbrew. I knew there was trickery afoot. Firebug, eh? What will they think of next?