BLOARD GRAMES

December 14, 2020 7:15 AM

BLABRECS is like SCRABBLE, except that every word must resemble an English word (according to a simple Markov-based AI) without actually being one.
posted by theodolite (56 comments total)

I feel like playing playing the New York Times Spelling Bee the last few months has probably really prepared me for this.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 7:19 AM on December 14, 2020 [8 favorites]

this is one of the theodolitest posts of all time
posted by phunniemee at 7:23 AM on December 14, 2020 [5 favorites]

APALECTIC: Overcome with apathy; extremely indolent.
GORMFUL: The quality of having gorm; synonym for dull or insipid.
HORKIFY: To roughly prepare the contents of one's mouth and/or nasal cavity for imminent ejection.
posted by graymouser at 7:25 AM on December 14, 2020 [6 favorites]

They should have manually added KWYJIBO just for kicks.
posted by mookoz at 7:30 AM on December 14, 2020 [5 favorites]

Is TBBLOBNOERN an English word?
posted by bondcliff at 7:35 AM on December 14, 2020 [5 favorites]

All you need is a list of all of the Chinese Vendor names for barstools from Amazon.
This week you can order from Splazspra, Feunmik, and Acaltutzi.
posted by halfbuckaroo at 7:39 AM on December 14, 2020

KURBLE: A broken-off piece of an object that is somehow the wrong size, shape, or color to have ever been attached to it originally.
posted by Strange Interlude at 7:46 AM on December 14, 2020 [6 favorites]

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Expected "wabe" to be playable, tbh. Also "mimsy"
posted by kleinsteradikaleminderheit at 7:48 AM on December 14, 2020 [6 favorites]

This — including the making plausible definitions, but minus the online-AI-check tyranny — is exactly how we've been playing Scrabble in this house for the last decade. At least no-one can take our "Chess — but any piece can move anywhere but has to hear how that move makes the opponent's nearest piece feel (using appropriate voices for the different pieces, of course) and if that makes the player feel bad, they must move back one square immediately and apologize" from us.
posted by scruss at 7:56 AM on December 14, 2020 [22 favorites]

stapton - small pieces of leather left over from craftmaking, typically cobbling but not limited to it, that are too small to be used but too big to be discarded.
posted by FirstMateKate at 8:20 AM on December 14, 2020

It is remarkably difficult to come up with a three-letter word that the AI will let you play. I finally succeeded with VED, but it took a while.
posted by Johnny Assay at 8:21 AM on December 14, 2020

finally a version of scrabble that i can DOMINEUENCE!
posted by zsh2v1 at 8:25 AM on December 14, 2020 [3 favorites]

QUIKE feeling an earth tremor while riding a bicycle
posted by Splunge at 8:26 AM on December 14, 2020

sure, i'll play - CHRUNT - a toenail that has been cut uncomfortably short
posted by thedaniel at 8:36 AM on December 14, 2020 [2 favorites]

Three letter words are weird--it liked ZAT and ZOT, but not ZET or ZUT; and JAC and JAH, but not JAT or JIT.
posted by box at 8:39 AM on December 14, 2020

The AI sounds dumb. JAT and JIT look and sound legitimate. JAC doesn’t look right with that final C. All the Z words look and sound fine.
posted by njohnson23 at 8:53 AM on December 14, 2020

Blackadder : Oh, I'm sorry, sir. I'm anaspeptic, phrasmotic, even compunctuous to have caused you such pericombobulation.
posted by moonface at 8:56 AM on December 14, 2020 [7 favorites]

time to dig out my old copy of Rich Hall's Sniglets
posted by OHenryPacey at 8:57 AM on December 14, 2020 [4 favorites]

I wonder if playing this will suppress the range of your working vocabulary for a few minutes or longer?
posted by BrotherCaine at 9:05 AM on December 14, 2020

Fun! I wish it included scoring. I’ve created FLECTACLE, BARRIOUS, and ZILQUED.
posted by Monochrome at 9:10 AM on December 14, 2020 [2 favorites]

Blasecrabble. The Blaseball of Scrabble.
posted by evidenceofabsence at 9:17 AM on December 14, 2020

My contributions, albeit undefined: GALGON, SLEPTON, HEREAL, FUNTRAL, LATISMORT, STEMOREAL, MIXION, HENCHET, TOFTIER, SPANGLOR, GUMBRA, and ARGOTE.
posted by lumensimus at 9:33 AM on December 14, 2020

GABLUP: "no way that's a word!" [Drake holds up his hand]
GABLUPS: "looks good to me!" [Drake points and smiles]
posted by ardgedee at 9:41 AM on December 14, 2020 [2 favorites]

This reminds me that just yesterday I was working on a "variety" cryptic crossword from Games World of Puzzles, where the extra twist was that every answer was entered in the grid with a pair of consecutive letters switched. When I was done and read it over, it looked so unnerving, with everything being so close to an actual word but nothing being one.

It's also somewhat unnerving that I was able to finish that crossword with the extra restriction so much more easily than my current main source of cryptic crosswords, which is The Guardian's web site. That US/UK difference in puzzles makes even Everyman and Quiptic much more difficult, but I'm getting back into the swing of things.
posted by cardioid at 9:45 AM on December 14, 2020

Sleptons were once thought to be the most fundamental components of sleep, but most theorists now believe they are composed of various forms of dozarks -- nap, nod, side, back, dream, and snooze.
posted by straight at 9:47 AM on December 14, 2020 [29 favorites]

Sleptons were once thought to be the most fundamental components of sleep, but most theorists now believe they are composed of various forms of dozarks -- nap, nod, side, back, dream, and snooze.

The quantum memory foam is as wondrous as it is sedate.
posted by lumensimus at 10:19 AM on December 14, 2020 [2 favorites]

Also, the AI likes CROMULENT and EMBIGGEN. For what it's worth.
posted by Johnny Assay at 11:35 AM on December 14, 2020 [3 favorites]

FLORIOUS: having a bright, saturated color reminiscent of a flower - "The wedding hall was decorated with a multitude of florious, gossamer fabrics."

PROTISANAL: being experienced in the ways of marine crafts such as sailing and crabbing - "You meet all manner of protisanal sorts when you work on the old Navy base."

WANCH: sodden or covered with - "The downs were wanch with fog."

BARBLED: being covered with flecks of food or dried sauce or drink - "Go wash up, your face is utterly barbled."

YATTLE: to lightly brush or graze another's face at unpredictable intervals in a frustrating manner - "I was looking for something in the attic and got yattled by cobwebs."

BERDOCK: a bulbous outgrowth on a tree that resembles a breast - "The teachers resented the tree in the schoolyard, adorned as it was with hefty berdocks that were the subject of many jokes from the older boys."

BISULATED: to be irreversibly convinced of one's own lack of worth or purpose - "That performance review with my boss has me completely bisulated."

BLUGORIOUS: being of low quality and covered with a layer of decoration that once appeared opulent but which is now decaying in a tragic manner - "Trump's legacy will forever be one of blugorious towers covered in flaking gold leaf, standing yet confidently only by virtue of their fundamental incapacity for self-reflection."
posted by invitapriore at 11:51 AM on December 14, 2020 [9 favorites]

CORTEXIAN, CORTEXESQUE, CORTEXIOUS, CORTEXULOUS are all playable. MARKOVIAN is not playable, and even worse, not in the word list.

CORTEXMUSTBETAKINGAPROLONGEDNAP... well, too long. Jury's out.
posted by kleinsteradikaleminderheit at 11:52 AM on December 14, 2020 [2 favorites]

There needs to be a dictionary of all the valid blabrecs words.
posted by chavenet at 12:22 PM on December 14, 2020 [1 favorite]

Not possible, just a partial order on all possible words

[Edit: well, there's one for each... threshold likelihood I guess?]
posted by kleinsteradikaleminderheit at 12:24 PM on December 14, 2020

Good morning, that's a nice TNETENNBA.
posted by Foosnark at 1:07 PM on December 14, 2020 [1 favorite]

GORMFUL: The quality of having gorm; synonym for dull or insipid.

Surely GORMFUL is the inverse of GORMLESS, and therefor a compliment.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 1:17 PM on December 14, 2020 [2 favorites]

Scruss you should broadcast your chess games on twitch or something
posted by seanmpuckett at 1:32 PM on December 14, 2020

Rejected as not a word: blep, smol, hangry, uwu, swole, yeet, bae

Accepted: chonkers, heckin, stan

Rejected for being in the dictionary: doggo
posted by RobotHero at 1:42 PM on December 14, 2020 [1 favorite]

Oh, it's like reverse Balderdash scrabble.
posted by deludingmyself at 2:17 PM on December 14, 2020 [1 favorite]

BREXIT means BR—no way that’s a word!
posted by Monochrome at 2:59 PM on December 14, 2020

Is the game primarily about exploring the vast "shadow English" implied by the statistical distribution of letter sequences, or is it about the inherent absurdity of an external authority presuming to dictate your language to you? Either interpretation seems valid to me.

SCRABBLE: Nadsat Edition.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 3:32 PM on December 14, 2020 [1 favorite]

HURGAR: The sensation of simultaneously needing to throw up and being incandescently furious.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 5:14 PM on December 14, 2020 [1 favorite]

Has anyone typed in covfe...
Never mind.
posted by BlueHorse at 6:04 PM on December 14, 2020 [2 favorites]

Surely GORMFUL is the inverse of GORMLESS, and therefor a compliment.

You would think so but the mere inclusion of GORM in a word renders it somewhat of an insult.
posted by graymouser at 4:35 AM on December 15, 2020 [1 favorite]

don't worry george, MOOPS is accepted in this game too
posted by Kybard at 5:57 AM on December 15, 2020

YER: a short year; a year in which an extra day is removed from February.
posted by nubs at 6:00 AM on December 15, 2020

"BARBLED: being covered with flecks of food or dried sauce or drink - "Go wash up, your face is utterly barbled.""

Now I have something to say to the babies at work after they eat their lunch.
posted by kathrynm at 8:16 AM on December 15, 2020 [2 favorites]

TROOF: Not falth
JUSTUS: equality within our monkeysphere
FLIBBERTY: the state of having flibber
posted by davelog at 8:28 AM on December 15, 2020

Interesting that FLIBBERTY is not a word, but GIBBET is a word that is unrelated (?) to FLIBBERTIGIBBET.
posted by Johnny Assay at 9:07 AM on December 15, 2020 [1 favorite]

Surely GORMFUL is the inverse of GORMLESS, and therefor a compliment.

Good news about galactic tourism! The Guide has upgraded the description of Earth to "Mostly Harmful!"
posted by straight at 11:36 AM on December 15, 2020

Prisencolinensinainciusol is unfortunately far too long to fit on a board, much less play.
posted by ckape at 11:43 AM on December 15, 2020

Nlce Jry, Passwerd Guisser.
posted by filtergik at 11:59 AM on December 15, 2020

chmod and chgrp don’t work, but chown does
posted by Monochrome at 2:44 PM on December 15, 2020

i’m enjoying putting in vaguely greek-looking roots and determining how much fake greek is too greek to look like fake english. my favorite accepted words so far are “anaximang” and “hapaxion”
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 3:11 PM on December 15, 2020

it’s also fun to figure out how big a pile of prefixes and suffixes you can glom together before the system decides it’s not english

for example: reunderededer counts as englishlike
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 3:14 PM on December 15, 2020 [1 favorite]

PRAN = three-wheeled baby carriage
ZANGRETIC = smushing multiple different kinds of pizza together
GLOOPY = you know, gloopy

Down with prescriptivist SCRABBLE! Up with the gloopy BLABRECS! And, AI overlords, if you're reading, I like "BRABLECS" too; the "lex-" squeezed in there is very zangretic.
posted by adekllny at 7:37 AM on December 16, 2020 [1 favorite]

writing prompt use the following words in a sentence:

animanimal
unholosharkered
octopusificatio
wellclommered
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 7:52 AM on December 16, 2020 [1 favorite]

it has been brought to my attention that "animanimal" is already the name of a children's animated series. as such, please replace animanimal in the previous prompt with flanimanimal, which likewise is a valid englishey word and which may be useful for people who enjoy talking about delicious desserts and/or one of the frontmen of the late 80s/early 90s band they might be giants.
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 8:10 AM on December 16, 2020

okay, continuing to have fun with this:

cous -> counts as a word
couscous --> in the dictionary
couscouscous --> counts as a word
couscouscouscous -> too long to play on a scrabble board

tion -> counts as a word
tiontion -> counts as a word
tiontiontion -> counts as a word

icious -> counts as a word
iciousicious -> counts as a word

ded -> word
dedded -> word
deddedded -> word
[ ... and so forth].

basically: for most strings of characters s, if s counts as an englishlike word, then ss, sss and so forth are all also englishlike words.
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 1:04 PM on December 16, 2020