Quaazy, zowpig and splawder: Scrabble plans to include English regional terms in dictionary
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Your support makes all the difference.Scrabble lovers could soon be racking up double-digit scores with words like quaazy, zowpig and splawder.
The words are among a selection of English regional terms being considered for inclusion in the official Scrabble dictionary by bosses of the popular board game.
Quaazy is a Devon word meaning unwell and zowpig is an old name for a woodlouse. Splawder is a Lincolnshire term meaning to walk or run awkwardly.
Twag means to play truant in East Yorkshire and if you are arrad in Lincolnshire you are tired.
As new words emerge, often at the cost of traditional dialects, Scrabble said it is keen to bring some older, endangered words back to the attention of the next generation.
Experts approached regional word societies across the UK to encourage them to submit words on the brink of extinction.
The terms will become officially playable when they are included in the next edition of the Collins Scrabble Dictionary.
Competitors taking part in Sunday's Scrabble National Championship in London have backed the move.
Paul Gallen, 26, a solicitor from Belfast, said: "New and emerging words are included within the Scrabble dictionary, so it is fun and appropriate to celebrate rarer, older ones."
Olawale Fashina, 43, an accountant from Liverpool, said: "If you are a word lover, you welcome any initiative that celebrates every corner of the language."
Endangered words to become officially playable in Scrabble, by region:
Devon:
Zowpeg, Zowpig - woodlouse
Quaazy - unwell
Gleanies - guinea fowl
East Yorkshire:
Swaal - throw, chuck
Twag - play truant
Scaal - to spread over the ground (eg muck)
Cumbria:
Darrack - a day's work
Whick - living, alive - not dead
Lancashire:
Marlock - to play, joke, prank
Meemaw - an antic, grotesque action, expression of freedom
Layrock - skylark or lark
Lincolnshire:
Skelled - tipped
Arrad - tired
Splawder - to walk or run awkwardly and inefficiently, to spread over
Hotchin - a hedgehog
Gawster - to laugh helplessly
Nowter - a nobody, someone who does not count
Norfolk:
Tizzick - cough
Pishamire - ant
Swidge - small puzzle
Northumberland:
Stangy - tailor
Norration - confused noise, disturbance
Kent:
Pogger - compulsive worrier
Boboy - human figure, scarecrow
PA
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