The exact same demographic that’s even aware of the “common usage” of ‘zerg’ also uses ‘nerf’ almost exclusively in its verb form. It wouldn’t even be remarkable to see them used in those sentences in the same sentence: “Man, that latest Heart of the Swarm patch totally nerfed the Zerg”.
A word is acceptable for the Scrabble Official Word List if it appears in at least one of the following five dictionaries: Funk & Wagnall’s Standard College Dictionary, Merriam-Webster’s College Dictionary, The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Webster’s New World Dictionary, and The Random House College Dictionary. (Source: Word Freak, pg. 143)
So clearly, you need to contact the editors at Funk & Wagnal’s et al and demand that they remove ‘vrouw’ et al. (Although that still might not help. ‘Al’ [an East Indian tree] was in the Random House Dictionary when the first Scrabble dictionary was published in 1978. Random House has since dropped the word, but it lives on in the Scrabble dictionary through inertia.)
It’s probably more well-known around homebrewing circles. I don’t really think of it as a “chemist” word so much as a “lover of alcoholic beverages” word. That is, the people I know who know that word are not the scientific set, but everyday joes and janes with a particular hobby.
But that’s using “Zerg” as a proper noun, to refer to the collection of alien monsters that compose The Swarm.
To really use it, you’d have to use “zerg” as a noun. “When they nerfed the plasma cannon upgrade on the Raptors you can’t zerg with them any more.”
Yeah, I was going to say I knew the word because I practice the hobby.
But there’s lots of words like that- ‘zygodactyl’ describes the arrangement of toes on the feet of some birds.
I don’t think I’ll ever be able to play it, but I’m ready if the time ever comes. 
My point was that it’s a bit silly to compare the verb forms of those words to their “common usage”, since the “common” usage of ‘zerg’ (the proper noun) is just as uncommon as the verb form of ‘nerf’.
My point was that there is an active community of gamers who use these terms, and they are hardly limited to one game. I have heard “nerfed” a lot in Mechwarrior, and I’ve heard “zerg” a lot (exclusively as a verb) in Second Life Gor. So there is a large community of gamers who use these terms, as opposed to the Middle English terms that are almost never used by anyone but scrabble players.
No, zerg is much more uncommon. I didn’t even know that nerf was a video game term, as I’m pretty sure I learned it on the playground. “Zerg” (as a noun) apparently actually comes from a video game. “Nerf” predates video games. It seems unlikely that both would be just as common.
I’d be more inclined to think that “Nerf” was excluded to avoid the appearance of misusing a trademark, not because it is uncommon. The verb “google” is much more common, but I doubt it’s in there, either.
The Scrabble Players Dictionary includes the verbs xerox and fedex, so they’re clearly not above using words derived from trademarks. I won’t be surprised if google makes the next (5th) edition of the dictionary.
I’m surprised at the inclusion of “fedex,” as I’ve never heard it as a generic verb, and the Scrabble Player’s Dictionary agrees, saying it means “to send by Federal Express.” “Xerox,” though, is used as a generic verb. I see that words like “kleenex” and “dumpster” aren’t allowed, either, although those are used as generic nouns. Is the rationale that one can verb a trademarked noun and, if in common usage, even if the verb is specifically tied to the trademark, it’s okay? Seems kind of odd to me. (ETA: Though I see “kleenex” and “dumpster” are allowed using the tournament list of words in SOWPODS or TWL.)
Pilgrim’s Progress was actually written in Modern English. True, parts of it may use words that are unfamiliar to us, but it’s much easier to read than Chaucer, and I had to read both in college.
:smack: Of course, you are correct. Shakespeare is considered (Early) Modern English, and it predates The Pilgrim’s Progress. So, to recap Beowulf -> Old English. Canterbury Tales -> Middle English. Shakespeare -> (Early) Modern English.
Good point. I had conflated Canterbury Tales and Pilgrim’s Progress. Which one had the old lady with the huge rack and “wee smackit parfits waere donne twae pluckt” – you know, authentic Middle English gibberish?
I’ve used nerf as a verb for a while now, and have heard others use it as well, and not just in the realms of video games. (E.g. In D&D 3.5, a common thing brought up was how Clerics got nerfed considerably from 3.0.)
Heck, I never even really thought about where the term came from until this thread. I always knew the origin in the back of my mind, but when using it I never thought about the actual foam weapon company. In my mind it was just a word meaning “significantly reduce the power of”. Just like I don’t think of Kimberly-Clark paper products when I ask for a Kleenex.
I must not be phrasing this well. The common usage of “Nerf” is a proper noun used as a trademark by a company that makes foam toys. This usage is used by the majority of Americans, of all subcultures. Among the gaming community, “nerf” also has a secondary meaning, to reduce the power of something, usually for the sake of game balance.
The most common usage that the word “Zerg” has is a proper noun for a specific race of aliens in the Starcraft video game series. This usage pretty much only shows up amongst gamers, specifically Starcraft players. Among certain segments of the gaming community, “zerg” also has a secondary meaning, to overwhelm an enemy through sheer weight of numbers (a tactic often used by said alien race).
Thus, my comment was that it was odd for Justin Bailey to compare the verb forms of those two words to their “common usage”, since the so-called “common” usage of “zerg” is less common than the verb form of “nerf”. If one were to argue that the noun form of the word “Zerg” (as opposed to the verb form) were common enough to appear in dictionaries, then one is also implying that the verb form of “nerf” ought also to be common enough for dictionaries.
Huh? When did I do that? I said that Zerg and Nerf began their life as proper nouns and that, as far as the Scrabble/Words With Friends people are concerned, that is where both words still are in the common usage (meaning everybody, not gamer subcultures).
But since we’re here, yes, I agree that it’s only a matter of time the verb form of “nerf” is added to the dictionary and the “common usage.”
Except that “where ‘zerg’ is in the common usage” is “nowhere”.
Has anyone in the entire history of eating melted cheese on baked dough ever referred to a pizza as a “za”? I am rather dubious.
Exactly, it’s neither a chemist’s nor a oenologist’s word… it’s a hobby brewer’s word.
I’ve seen it on a sign outside of a pizza place. Once. In the south. So I’m not sure what I ate actually counts as “pizza” or “melted cheese on baked dough.”