Wordtwist Dictionary Update

[admin]

80 similar words (-NESSES in the dictionary but -NESS not) were also found and fixed. Thanks again.

[lalatan]

Thanks for making the changes so quickly. That's superresponsible of you.

[admin]

This was intriguing. SUPERRESPONSIBLENESSES was accepted for 42 pts but SUPERRESPONSIBLENESS was not.

Thanks for catching that - puzzle is fixed and dictionary updated. I'll run some more checks to see if there are any similar cases that slipped through.

[lalatan]

This was intriguing. SUPERRESPONSIBLENESSES was accepted for 42 pts but SUPERRESPONSIBLENESS was not.

[dannyb]

[QUOTE=admin;n31151]Nage isn't in the dictionary we're using as our master, though I do see it in a few others. My best guess is that it is still considered to be a French word occasionally used in English, rather than a full-fledged borrowing from French. It's definitely an edge case, and if I were hand-selecting each word to be added I would probably include it. I just don't have the time to hand-sift through 1.5 million words and make these types of individual decisions.

Thanks for the explanation.

[admin]

Nage isn't in the dictionary we're using as our master, though I do see it in a few others. My best guess is that it is still considered to be a French word occasionally used in English, rather than a full-fledged borrowing from French. It's definitely an edge case, and if I were hand-selecting each word to be added I would probably include it. I just don't have the time to hand-sift through 1.5 million words and make these types of individual decisions.

Re: Naboka's comment... I specifically purchased a lexicographical database which cross-references all words by their roots. I did this so that I could find - and include - any word that is based off the same root. A good example is COUNTEROBJECTING, which was added in the 2019 update, but we didn't at that time include COUNTEROBJECT, COUNTEROBJECTS, or COUNTEROBJECTING. The new word database cross-references all of those as having the same root word, and therefore all of those words were now included in the 2022 update. This includes plurals/singulars, verb tenses, adverbial versions, etc. As with any dataset I don't expect it to be 100% perfect but so far I've found it to have caught almost all of the reported "missing" words posted on the forum in the past several years (at least those which weren't archaic/dialectical).

[Naboka]

Is it correct to assume that the expanded dictionary stems more from inflectional and grammatical variations rather than adding new distinct lexemes?

Such as misbehaving and misbehaver might already exist but adding s produces the new words misbehavings and misbehavers. Adding the ness/nesses adds misbehavingness/misbehavingnesses.

As bwt1213 championed, many potential words were missing that followed normal inflectional forms or grammatical variation. Simple pluralization being one.
(and pluralization can convert a common word into an ultra rare one.)

As opposed to adding a bunch of terms like melanogaster or melanoglossia--just guessing they may not be included.

[dannyb]

Is it archaic if it is still used? Western Pennsylvania and parts of Ohio. Is that a small pocket of usage?. I guess that compared to the rest of the English speaking world it is. I'll concede on yuns.

I will never give up on nage though. It is a flavored poaching broth that can also be served as a "sauce".

[admin]

How about yuns?

The main definition I can find for YUN or YUNS has it as a proper noun, which would not be allowed in Wordtwist:

Yun
noun
ˈyu̇n
plural Yun or Yuns
: a Laotian of the right bank of the Mekong distinguished by tattooing on the body rather than the legs and thighs

Source: Yun Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster

I also see "yuns" as a user-submitted term in "Open Dictionary", with the definition of a highly informal shortening of "you all", as here:

YUNS (pronoun) American English definition and synonyms | Macmillan Dictionary

But informal/dialectical terms are also not included in the dictionary update.

YUNS is actually an excellent example of why I decided to exclude categories like archaic, dialectical, etc. - including them all would have absolutely exploded the number of allowed 3, 4, 5 and 6-letter words in Wordtwist, significantly changing the game. It almost got to the point where it felt like any halfway pronounceable combination of random letters would have had at least a 50-50 chance of being considered a word in some archaic usage or small pocket of human dialect somewhere in the world.

[admin]

They never were in Wordtwist. Any board generated that included the possibility of forming hard vulgarity was always immediately discarded.

This means there are a handful of longer words - i.e. MISHITTING or SHITAKE - which will never show up on any game, even though they are technically allowed in our dictionary.

[Razorflame]

With this new update, would words like F**K and S**T still be in the dictionary or have those been removed?

[Naboka]

Apologies, I missed your second question - yes, Sisyphean is not in the dictionary because it is always capitalized.

Primary reasons for any word being excluded from this update were:

- archaic
- dialectical
- abbreviations or nonstandard clippings
- alternative or nonstandard spellings
- informal / slang / colloquial
- proper noun (or derivative of)
- ethnic slurs or extreme vulgarity

Thanks. .

[admin]

Apologies, I missed your second question - yes, Sisyphean is not in the dictionary because it is always capitalized.

Primary reasons for any word being excluded from this update were:

- archaic
- dialectical
- abbreviations or nonstandard clippings
- alternative or nonstandard spellings
- informal / slang / colloquial
- proper noun (or derivative of)
- ethnic slurs or extreme vulgarity

[admin]

Shife is classified as dialectical, and so wasn't included.

[Naboka]

A question for admin:

tried to play "shife" which is in Lexic, but it didn't seem to take.

Screen Shot 2022-11-21 at 5.59.42 PM.png
Since we only have a limited time to type in words, and decisions must be made in fractions of a second, could you clarify the criteria for newly added words?

Augean wasn't accepted because it was a capitalized adjective. Would Sisyphean also fall under that grouping?

Months ago, it seemed that if the word were in Lexic it would be accepted with the updates, but that appears incorrect.

I'm not asking that you add words. So far the changes are working well. Just would like a guideline.

ps. the same would apply to outen which BoredInTheCar noted. It's in Lexic.

Though, dannyb's yuns is not.