Quaazy, zowpig and splawder: Scrabble plans to include English regional terms in dictionary

Scrabble lovers could soon be racking up double-digit scores with words like quaazy, zowpig and splawder.

The words are among a selection of English regional terms being considered for inclusion in the official Scrabble dictionary by bosses of the popular board game.

Quaazy is a Devon word meaning unwell and zowpig is an old name for a woodlouse. Splawder is a Lincolnshire term meaning to walk or run awkwardly.

Twag means to play truant in East Yorkshire and if you are arrad in Lincolnshire you are tired.

As new words emerge, often at the cost of traditional dialects, Scrabble said it is keen to bring some older, endangered words back to the attention of the next generation.

Experts approached regional word societies across the UK to encourage them to submit words on the brink of extinction.

The terms will become officially playable when they are included in the next edition of the Collins Scrabble Dictionary.

Competitors taking part in Sunday's Scrabble National Championship in London have backed the move.

Paul Gallen, 26, a solicitor from Belfast, said: "New and emerging words are included within the Scrabble dictionary, so it is fun and appropriate to celebrate rarer, older ones."

Olawale Fashina, 43, an accountant from Liverpool, said: "If you are a word lover, you welcome any initiative that celebrates every corner of the language."

Endangered words to become officially playable in Scrabble, by region:

Devon:

Zowpeg, Zowpig - woodlouse

Quaazy - unwell

Gleanies - guinea fowl

East Yorkshire:

Swaal - throw, chuck

Twag - play truant

Scaal - to spread over the ground (eg muck)

Cumbria:

Darrack - a day's work

Whick - living, alive - not dead

Lancashire:

Marlock - to play, joke, prank

Meemaw - an antic, grotesque action, expression of freedom

Layrock - skylark or lark

Lincolnshire:

Skelled - tipped

Arrad - tired

Splawder - to walk or run awkwardly and inefficiently, to spread over

Hotchin - a hedgehog

Gawster - to laugh helplessly

Nowter - a nobody, someone who does not count

Norfolk:

Tizzick - cough

Pishamire - ant

Swidge - small puzzle

Northumberland:

Stangy - tailor

Norration - confused noise, disturbance

Kent:

Pogger - compulsive worrier

Boboy - human figure, scarecrow

PA