For you Scrabble or Words With Friends enthusiasts, there's good news. The fifth edition of the Official Scrabble Player's Dictionary is out, and it includes lots of new words. Here are some examples:
Beatbox – A new verb meaning to sing to the rhythm of rap music. Beatboxing, beatboxes (past tense, not plural) and beatboxed are included in the new dictionary, but not beatboxer.
Bromance – This is a noun, and it means a close, non-sexual relationship between two men. I think it should probably be a verb, too, but ultimately it doesn't matter what part of speech you consider it when you're using it in Scrabble.
Buzzkill – Someone who has a depressing or negative effect on a conversation, party or get-together. Or during a heated political conversation, the buzzkill is often the first person to bring up actual, reliable facts.
Chillax – Another verb. It means to calm down and rest at the same time.
Frenemy – One who pretends to be a friend but is actually an enemy. I suppose it could also be one who pretends to be an enemy but is actually a friend, although I don't think that happens nearly as often.
Funplex – I hadn't heard this one before. It's a building with facilities for sports and games. It could be an arcade or a bowling alley or a putt-putt golf course. Or it could just be a gym.
Geocache – A lot of people in Idaho do this. It means to search for hidden items in a game setting by using a Global Positioning System device. You can geocache in the city, the country or the forest. Actually, the only requirement is that the hidden item be somewhere on earth.
Hashtag – This started in Twitter, but a lot of people use it as slang now. It's a word or phrase preceded by the symbol #, which categorizes the word or phrase in some way. Many people say it for comic effect in conversation, as in, "Jim is acting strangely tonight, hashtag controlled substance."
Jockdom – The world of athletes. However, it does sound as if it could be two words, as in, "Isn't that jockdom?"
Mixtape – A compilation of songs recorded from various sources. These have existed for a long time, but in 2014 they're a lot easier to make than they used to be. They're a common tool for those who are hopelessly romantic or stalking someone.
Mojito – A cocktail made of rum, sugar, mint and lime juice. It's usually considered to be a bit froofy, although froofy is not in the Scrabble dictionary.
Schmutz – Dirt and grime. It sounds Yiddish, but it might be just a consolidation of other words.
Selfie – A photo of you taken by you with a phone camera. You can also use a camera phone. Some selfies are taken by holding the camera in your extended arm. Others are taken in front of a mirror.
Sudoku – A puzzle involving the numbers 1 through 9. It's fairly standard in a lot of the remaining newspapers. Some people can't stand it. Others can't stop playing. Some of them are the same people.
Texter – Someone who texts. If you never send a text but occasionally receive one, I think you still count as a texter just for paying for the service.
Vlog – Blog is short for weblog, which is a journal or column written on the Internet and generally able to be read by the public. What you're reading right now is a blog. Vlog is short for video weblog. Before the Internet, you pretty much had to have your own TV show if you wanted to vlog.
Vodcast – Similar to vlog. A vodcast is a podcast with video, in the same way that television is radio with pictures.
Webzine – A magazine published on the Internet. I like them because you never see them stacked in anybody's garage.
By the way, the National Scrabble Championships will begin in Buffalo, New York four days from now. None of these words will be accepted this year, though. They and five-thousand other new words in the Scrabble dictionary won't be sanctioned for official Scrabble use until December 1. Rules are rules.
