June 27, 2000

10:46 AM

Random House dictionary brought up-to-date.Does this mean I'll be able to use "gaydar" the next time I play Scrabble?
posted by sandor (8 comments total)

That depends. Are you in the habit of playing Scrabble with George Clooney?
posted by bradlands at 11:29 AM on June 27, 2000

Since when is dotcom hyphenated??
posted by ZachsMind at 1:40 PM on June 27, 2000

No dictionary will enter the 21st Century until it includes the word WEBLOG.
posted by wendell at 2:27 PM on June 27, 2000

Not when you play with me, unless you have a hard copy of the dictionary handy. Nor can you use "kwyjibo." (Hey, everyone: Sandor and I played Scrabble last weekend and I smoked him! I mean, I really mopped the earth with him. And I had to fake a word only once!)
posted by luke at 2:47 PM on June 27, 2000

By the time we enter the 21st century, "weblog" will probably be considered a colloquial pejorative, at best. Oh, wait...um, nevermind.
posted by bradlands at 3:07 PM on June 27, 2000

Random House is known for shoveling tons of currently-extant slang into their College Dictionary, without a whole lot of regard for how popular the words are or whether they stand much chance of surviving. (Lots of these "new words" end up being yanked from later editions.)

And Random House isn't the dictionary you're supposed to use with Scrabble, either. Not in tournaments, anyway.
posted by aaron at 3:25 PM on June 27, 2000

Ironically, the '60's comedy show "Laugh-In" made the phrase "Look it up in your Funk & Wagnills" a slang catchphrase that maybe could have ended up in the Random House!
posted by wendell at 4:05 PM on June 27, 2000

Was anyone else hoping 'my bad' would just go away?
posted by birgitte at 4:15 PM on June 28, 2000