After 7 years, the new Scrabble dictionary is out. No, wait! That’s just the Official Scrabble Player’s Dictionary version 4. It’s not the “official” list, that is, it’s not the official word list for Scrabble competitions.
As in any organization, the National Scrabble Association’s leadership is driven more by PR than by practicality. They publish the OSPD of words, leaving out any words that may be offensive. Yet, NSA competitions use a separate book of all words. It’s as if you don’t want to offend people until you get them to join.
What is more confusion is the delay between the release of the two different word lists. I’ve heard that they may delay the release of the OWL for up to a year. There must be something that drives this timing. I can play JO, but I’ll have to wait for ZA until, like the changing lights at a NASCAR race, we get the green light.
Honestly, I think the issue is trivial, but thought it would serve as a good initial post.
