# Banned Scrabble words **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 9, 2020, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-scrabble-words/914803 "2020-07-09T03:21:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2020, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-scrabble-words/914803/41 "2020-07-10T03:04:35Z")
Slurs (age): crumblies graybeard(s) greybeard(s) wrinklie(s) ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2020, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-scrabble-words/914803/42 "2020-07-10T03:04:52Z")
“Goy” is on there for everyone who isn’t Jewish, but since the alphabetical listing _is_ the proper spelling, they break their pattern and list that as “yog.” ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2020, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-scrabble-words/914803/43 "2020-07-10T03:06:12Z")
> [@bibliophage](#): > > I still haven’t deciphered densuv (based on its position in the list, it must begin with U or V) or ccehilu (must begin with C). VENDU is a French Canadian term for Francophones who “sold out” to the English-speaking Canadians. CULCHIE is a slur used against rural Irish by various residents of the British Isles. I looked those up after reading the first post and clicking on the list, then returned to the thread. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2020, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-scrabble-words/914803/44 "2020-07-10T03:55:09Z")
Slurs (religion): goy goyim goyish goyishe goys jesuit jesuitic jesuitical jesuitically jesuitism jesuitisms jesuitries jesuitry jesuits jew jewed jewing jews nonpapist nonpapists papism papisms papist papicist papistries papistry papists sheeney sheeneys sheenie sheenies shegetz shicksa shicksas shiksa shiksas shikse shikseh shiksehs shikses yid yids Still lacking adgno (and its presumed plural adgnos), hikmostz, and gimmnot ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2020, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-scrabble-words/914803/45 "2020-07-10T03:57:07Z")
Interesting. I never heard either term before. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2020, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-scrabble-words/914803/46 "2020-07-10T04:31:20Z")
Wait a minute–Jesuit is a slur? That is what they call themselves! > **[The Jesuits - Jesuits.org](https://www.jesuits.org/about-us/the-jesuits/)** > > About Us We are the Society of Jesus, a Roman Catholic order of priests and brothers founded half a millennium ago by the soldier-turned-mystic Ignatius Loyola. But most people call us “the Jesuits.” In the vision of our founder, we seek to... ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2020, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-scrabble-words/914803/47 "2020-07-10T04:36:26Z")
I just found that most of the banned words were listed in an article in the Daily Mail published a few days ago when the banning was only a proposal. A few are too hot for them to print, but generally they at least hint at what they are. Be forewarned that they won’t let you in with an ad blocker, and without one the ads are the worst I’ve seen in a long time (in terms of their number, not their content). Here is the [article](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8492639/Scrabble-community-discusses-banning-racial-slurs-game-amid-Black-Lives-Matter-protests.html). ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2020, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-scrabble-words/914803/48 "2020-07-10T04:40:39Z")
They call themselves Jesuits with a capital J. Since it’s capitalized, Jesuit has never been a legal Scrabble word. The archaic word jesuit with a lowercase j means “a prevaricator” which is a slur against Jesuits, because it implies that the Jesuits are prevaricators. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2020, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-scrabble-words/914803/49 "2020-07-10T05:25:53Z")
I still don’t know gimmnot, but with help from the article I linked to, I found the first two are: adgno = dogan (chiefly Canadian term for a Catholic, especially Irish Catholic) hikmostz = shkotzim (plural of shegetz, a non-Jewish boy) ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2020, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-scrabble-words/914803/50 "2020-07-10T05:52:27Z")
gimmnot = tomming, apparently. I found what appears to be an unexpurgated list of the recently, um, expurgated words, and without any annoying ads. [Seattle Scrabble Club](http://www.seattlescrabble.org/expurg.php) ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2020, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-scrabble-words/914803/51 "2020-07-10T10:05:24Z")
What’s the matter with “goy”? Is it because it’s not English-y enough? still too much of a Hebrew/Yiddish word? ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2020, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-scrabble-words/914803/52 "2020-07-10T12:03:32Z")
The NY Times used GRAYBEARD in a puzzle today! ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2020, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-scrabble-words/914803/53 "2020-07-10T17:24:35Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Is “Foghat” on the list? That band’s name came from a prank in a Scrabble game. Huh. I knew there was a band named “Foghat” but for seventeen years have thought it was, well I dunno exactly what, but something physical and gray-colored, because of the Futurama episode _[The Farnsworth Parabox](https://morbotron.com/video/S05E10/i6NMD__ZXTj56i8-wSlIaYWGUiw=.gif)_ where the crew meet themselves from an alternate universe where all coin flips came out the opposite, including Bender the Robot’s color, where “our” Bender says he flipped a coin to determine his finish and it came out as “foghat gray”. So was that one-liner a reference to a rock band?! What’s so gray about Foghat? ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2020, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-scrabble-words/914803/54 "2020-07-10T17:29:30Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > What’s the matter with “goy”? Is it because it’s not English-y enough? still too much of a Hebrew/Yiddish word? It is probably considered offensive “in certain contexts”, even if relatively commonly used in a non-serious and joking way, like _shiksa_. Which I see on the list as well as “ahikss” and its plural, “ahiksss”. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2020, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-scrabble-words/914803/55 "2020-07-11T02:49:44Z")
Foghat the band WAAAAAY pre-dates “Futurama.” ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2020, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-scrabble-words/914803/56 "2020-07-11T03:29:15Z")
> [@bibliophage](#): > > Ginzo (a person from Guinea) “Ginzo” is derogatory for Italian-Americans (“guineas”) in the Northeastern US. We used to use it in the Bronx. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2020, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-scrabble-words/914803/57 "2020-07-11T10:58:58Z")
“Shiksa” is offensive in any context. “Goy” is not generally offensive, and in the right context, ANY word can be offensive. I remember someone commenting that someone else was “So goddam _human_.” You really had to hear the whole conversation, and know a little background, but yeah, the guy just used “human” as an insult. ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2020, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-scrabble-words/914803/58 "2020-07-11T14:34:26Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > “Shiksa” is offensive in any context. “Goy” is not generally offensive, and in the right context, ANY word can be offensive. I’m a non-Jewish person who grew up in an area devoid of them. I remember hearing the term from Jewish person Jerry Seinfeld and assumed that shiksa must not be very offensive. The network aired it. Granted, that was some years ago but…? [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0F_WFpT5II) ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2020, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-scrabble-words/914803/59 "2020-07-11T15:34:58Z")
> [@lobotomyboy63](#): > > I’m a non-Jewish person who grew up in an area devoid of them. I remember hearing the term from Jewish person Jerry Seinfeld and assumed that shiksa must not be very offensive. I don’t know if it has a special meaning to Jews (or maybe I do — it is used to describe idolatry), but that word simply means something like “disgusting, abominable filth” so I can’t imagine in what context referring to a person as such could be other than highly offensive, assuming one knows what it means. (Perhaps Jerry Seinfeld is not versed in Semitic languages?) ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2020, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-scrabble-words/914803/60 "2020-07-11T16:11:39Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > . . . that word simply means something like “disgusting, abominable filth”. . . “Shiksa” is derived from the Hebrew “sheketz,” which literally means “unclean” or “abomination.” But there’s a difference between a word’s derivation and its meaning. “Sheketz” refers to meat from an animal that is taboo under the kosher laws. A shiksa is, by extension,a forbidden woman. That is, it’s a woman that a Jewish man isn’t allowed to date - a gentile. No one who uses the word “shiksa” today thinks it means “filth.” That doesn’t mean the word isn’t offensive. There’s something troubling about labeling people outside your ethnic group this way, and it’s often used as a disparaging term. But it doesn’t mean “disgusting, abominable filth.” As for Seinfeld, he liked to push the boundaries of good taste on his show. He had an entire episode about masturbation, another in which he mocked conspiracy theories about the JFK assassination, and one where he made fun of anti-semitism (remember the show where he was an anti-dentite?). It was very much like him (and Larry David) to have an episode about Elaine’s shiksa appeal. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-scrabble-words/914803.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/banned-scrabble-words/914803.md?page=4)