2 ÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜ
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4 [Note: This file was included in the first edition of ENABLE, and is
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5 mostly unchanged in ENABLE2K. In a few cases, where ENABLE2K differs
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6 from its predecessor, the differences are noted in brackets.]
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8 The NSA updated "Tournament Word List" (TWL98) is to be the official
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9 reference for tournament and club Scrabble (r) play. The operators of the
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10 DOOM Scrabble server originally compiled this list, and it has undergone
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11 an update by an official "Dictionary Committee". Unfortunately, this
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12 TWL98 list remains proprietary and it is, despite promises to the
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13 contrary, available only to a small group of insiders. Our aim in
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14 distributing the Public Domain ENABLE list is to provide a very necessary
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15 resource and reference to the rest of the Scrabble community.
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17 In spring of 1997, Mendel was approached by an individual known to us only
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18 as Deep Glottides, offering him a number of arcane items of dubious value,
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19 including shards of the True Cross, an edition of the Necronomicon in the
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20 original Arabic, an exotic ebony statuette of a Mediterranean bird of prey,
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21 and an absolutely amazing way to MAKE MONEY FAST! While he found these items
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22 uninteresting, Mendel did accept the offer of a list of corrections to the
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23 then-current draft of the ENABLE list, supposedly derived from the contents
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24 of the DOOM list. Of course, we have no way of verifying the bona fides of
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25 these corrections; the hypothesis that they are instead code words used by
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26 the black helicopter division of the Insect Trust delegates from the Crab
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27 Nebula cannot be ruled out. However, using highly advanced UNIX (tm)
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28 software, we were able to reconstruct the list on which they were based.
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29 This list proved to be a highly accurate approximation to the union of
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30 OSPD (r) and MW10, and we consider it very likely that it is in fact a
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31 faithful copy of the DOOM list current at that time. This file lists the
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32 differences between that list and the ENABLE list (not including signature
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35 The differences between the DOOM list and ENABLE fall into four categories:
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39 These words were added or removed solely on the basis of their presence or
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40 absence in MW10. None of the listings is in any way ambiguous or suggestive
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41 of an error in MW10. The word "coresidenttial" was not added, since it is
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42 clearly a typographical error.
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44 DOOM words removed from ENABLE (MW10)
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49 (*) "fricandeaux" has been added to the ENABLE list as a signature word.
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50 It is accepted by other dictionaries.
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52 non-DOOM words added to ENABLE (MW10)
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81 The status of these words was changed by TWL98. We anticipate these changes
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82 will be reflected in the DOOM list, and possibly already are. Note that some
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83 published TWL98 changes are not listed here, because these changes were
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84 already reflected in the DOOM list as of Spring 1997 (e.g., the false word
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85 "nonfinites" could not be removed because it was not present). Also, one
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86 version of the TWL98 changes mandated the removal of the word "suboptimum",
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87 which we ignored since the word is clearly present in MW10, and this change
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88 was not confirmed by other accounts of TWL98.
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90 DOOM words removed from ENABLE (TWL98)
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238 (*) These words are present in the ENABLE list as signature words.
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239 Despite their rejection by TWL98, they appear to us to be reasonably valid.
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240 Note that "premarketing" is actually listed in MW10.
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242 [ENABLE2K lists "premarketing" as a base word, not a signature word, as
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243 it has become clear that the statement that TWL98 removed it was simply
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244 an error. ENABLE2K also lists "vaginitides", based on its appearance
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245 in the Merriam-Webster Medical Dictionary.]
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247 non-DOOM words added to ENABLE (TWL98)
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422 (*) Accounts of the TWL98 changes varied concerning these words. They were
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423 described as both added and removed. Since they were not present as of
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424 Spring 1997, and since they all seemed to be perfectly valid inflections, we
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425 added them to the ENABLE list.
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427 [In ENABLE2K, the words "bassett" and "bassetts" were dropped; their
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428 inclusion was based on an error in MW10 which has now been corrected.
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429 Similarly, the words "starfruit" and "starfruits" have been removed from
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430 the latest edition of MW10, and should be removed from the main ENABLE
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431 word list the next time it is revised.]
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434 III. "also called" words
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436 These words are words shown in italics in MW10 entries for other words.
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437 TWL98 legitimizes these words, even though it only catalogued those shorter
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440 non-DOOM words added to ENABLE (also called)
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476 [In ENABLE2K, the implied plural of "tsutsugamushi", "tsutsugamushis",
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480 IV. Interpretations
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482 One of the dirty secrets of Scrabble (tm) is that the official source for
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483 resolution of word validity, MW10, is incapable of resolving all such
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484 questions. The primary reason for this is the MW10 practice of including
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485 lists of words starting with a particular prefix, such as anti- or non-,
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486 without providing part of speech information. This makes it impossible to
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487 decide, on the basis of MW10 alone, whether "antitakeovers", for example, is
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488 a valid word or not.
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490 To resolve such questions, it is necessary to go to other sources, such as
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491 the Hasbro Scrabble (tm) CD-ROM and other dictionaries, and then to use good
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492 judgment and "word sense" to decide. (The Random House Unabridged dictionary
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493 proved especially helpful here, since it provides similar word lists having
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494 a large intersection with the MW10 lists, and also provides part of speech
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495 information.) In many cases, our judgment on these questions disagreed with
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496 that of the compilers of the DOOM list. Can we claim that our judgments were
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497 always correct? Well, of course we can. That's called "marketing"! More
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498 realistically, we claim we have considered each putative word on its merits,
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499 and have always tried to make a careful and thoughtful decision. At the very
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500 least, we hope we have avoided absurdities such as the abominable
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501 "nonpolices" and "ultrariches" (words rightly rejected by TWL98, but
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502 accepted by the Hasbro CD-ROM and, in the case of "ultrariches", by the DOOM
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505 For each word listed below, we explain our rationale for accepting or
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506 rejecting the word. Note that no words are listed where we reached the same
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507 conclusions as the DOOM list, but be assured that these words were examined
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508 as carefully as those where there was disagreement.
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511 DOOM words removed from ENABLE (interpretations)
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514 An obvious nonsense word, despite acceptance by Hasbro CD and RH
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517 Not listed in MW10, accepted by the Hasbro CD. This word
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518 proved very controversial. MW10, in its introduction, does not
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519 claim to list all -er and -est forms, only those whose spelling
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520 might be in doubt. So its absence from MW10 does not, in itself,
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521 prove it invalid. But I claim the following: (a) No dictionary
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522 that I have been able to check lists this form, and (b) if a
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523 single-word comparative form of beautiful exists, it would be
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524 "beautifuller". (If one looks at the -ful words in OSPD for
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525 which a comparative form is listed, one finds they all double
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526 the "l".) Finally, I note that neither the DOOM list nor the
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527 Hasbro CD lists the putative superlative "beautifulest". (While
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528 English has the occasional word with a superlative but no comparative,
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529 I'm unaware of any examples of the opposite sort.) Mendel feels
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530 that there is a tradition of accepting this word, and recalls
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531 having seen arguments for it, though he cannot reconstruct them.
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532 Accordingly, "beautifuler" (and the implied "beautifulest") have
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533 been added to ENABLE as signature words despite the impossibility
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534 of justifying them on the basis of MW10.
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535 [During the research for the second edition of the ENABLE2K
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536 Supplement, two additional facts about "beautifuler" turned up.
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537 First the Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (NI3) lists it, as
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538 well as the corresponding superlative; this is doubtless the original
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539 justification for including the word in the DOOM list. Additionally,
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540 the fourth edition of the American Heritage dictionary notes its
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541 existence as "obsolete" and, interestingly enough, spells it with a
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545 Rejected based on OSPD's listing of "carditises" as the only
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546 plural of "carditis". Since "carditis" is not listed by MW10,
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547 the OSPD listing seems to be the best information available on
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548 pluralization of words with this root.
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550 See "endocardites". [ENABLE2K allows "carditides", a plural listed
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551 by the MW Medical Dictionary. MW Medical does not, however, list
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552 "endocarditides", so this word remains removed.]
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554 Rejected based on OSPD's listing of "colitises" as the only
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555 plural of "colitis". Plurals such as this one present a difficult
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556 problem. Based on MW10 alone, one would admit this plural, since
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557 OSPD gives no explicit pluralization, and the general -itis entry
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558 allows -ites and -itides as well as -itises. However, OSPD shows
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559 only the plural "colitises" for "colitis". OSPD was compiled by
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560 Merriam-Webster, and presumably would have included "colites" and
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561 "colitides" if they were legitimate. Therefore, we have decided
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562 to follow the lead of OSPD in such cases.
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564 See "enterocolites".
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566 Rejected based on TWL98's removal of the root form "enterites".
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568 Rejected based on OSPD's listing of "zygoses" as the only plural
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569 of "zygosis". See "enterocolites".
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571 See "enterocolites".
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573 See "enterocolites". OSPD shows only the plural "hidroses" for
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576 Rejected due to TWL98's condemnation of all -wears plurals.
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578 See "enterocolites". OSPD shows only the plural "adenitises" for
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581 See "enterocolites".
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583 See "enterocolites". OSPD shows only the plural "fibroses" for
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586 See "endocardites".
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588 See "endocardites".
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590 TWL98 removes "nonghettos" on the grounds that "nonghetto" is not
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591 a noun. So "nonghettoes" has to go too.
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593 Rejected due to TWL98's rejection of the root form "sclerosises"
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595 When OSPD and MW10 appeared to be in conflict about the plurals of
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596 diseases (see "endocardites"), other sources were consulted. Actually,
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597 very few sources *could* be consulted, since virtually no one other
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598 than a few crazed Scrabble (tm) players believes that diseases even have
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599 plurals. However, the Merriam-Webster Unabridged does accept them.
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600 Though it was not helpful for any other of the troublesome disease
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601 words, MW Unabridged does show "pericarditides" as the only plural of
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602 "pericarditis". Since this was an explicit entry, we decided it
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603 overrode the implications of both MW10 and OSPD, and accordingly
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604 included only "pericarditides" in ENABLE.
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606 See "pericardites".
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608 Supposedly the plural of "saccharomyces". MW10 defines two other
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609 -myces words, both of which have plurals identical to the singular
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610 form. Also, American Heritage shows "saccharomyces" as unchanged
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611 in the plural. Accordingly, we made a judgment call that this
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612 unnatural-looking plural is an error, and removed it from the
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615 Rejected as an obvious offense to the English language, since the
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616 "ch" in scarmouch is a soft ch, not a hard one as in "oligarch".
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618 Not listed by MW10, but accepted by the other major American
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619 dictionaries. Added to ENABLE as signature word.
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623 Rejected due to TWL98's condemnation of all -wears plurals.
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625 Rejected based on TWL98's rejection of the root form "synovites".
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627 See "tenosynovites".
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629 Accepted by the Hasbro CD, but removed from ENABLE by analogy with
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630 "ultralefts", which is rejected by TWL98.
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632 Rejected based on TWL98's rejection of the root form "vaginites".
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635 non-DOOM words added to ENABLE (interpretations)
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638 This word is given explicitly as a plural of "antefix" by MW10.
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639 OSPD and MW Unabridged reject this plural, and give "antefixa"
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640 in its place (as does American Heritage). This may be evidence
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641 that "antefixae" is erroneous. Nevertheless, not having the
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642 resources or experience to second-guess Merriam-Webster on this
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643 point, we decided to take MW10 at face value, and added "antefixae"
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644 to the ENABLE list. [The Encarta(r) dictionary confirms "antefixae"
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645 as a valid plural of "antefix". However, as a plural not listed in
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646 OSPD, we treat "antefixae" as a new MW10 word, rather than as an
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649 Accepted by RH Unabridged, rejected by the Hasbro CD. Judgment
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654 This word is given explicitly as the present participle of "begird"
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655 by MW10. OSPD and MW Unabridged (and American Heritage) instead
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656 give a more regular "begirding". Again, possibly an error in MW10.
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657 Not being expert in the conjugation of archaic verbs, once more we
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658 have put our trust in the scolarship of MW10 and accepted "begirting".
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659 [The 1999 edition of MW10 removes "begirting". Accordingly, we have
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660 removed it from ENABLE2K.]
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662 A plural of "chlorenchyma", by virtue of the MW10 -enchyma entry.
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664 Accepted by both RH Unabridged and the Hasbro CD.
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666 Accepted by both RH Unabridged and the Hasbro CD.
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668 Accepted by the Hasbro CD.
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670 Past tense of "interwork", accepted by RH Unabridged, rejected
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671 by the Hasbro CD. Accepted as clearly implied by MW10.
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673 Accepted by both RH Unabridged and the Hasbro CD.
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675 Accepted by both RH Unabridged and the Hasbro CD.
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677 Accepted by both RH Unabridged and the Hasbro CD.
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679 Accepted by the Hasbro CD.
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681 Accepted by the Hasbro CD.
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683 Accepted by both RH Unabridged and the Hasbro CD.
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685 TWL98 adds "overlighted", implying that "overlighting" is also valid.
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686 Also, the OSPD entry for "overlit" implies the existence of the verb
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689 A plural of "parenchyma", by virtue of the MW10 -enchyma entry.
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691 Accepted by the Hasbro CD.
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693 Accepted by RH Unabridged, rejected by the Hasbro CD. Judgment call.
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695 See "predischarged".
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697 Accepted by the Hasbro CD.
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699 Accepted by the Hasbro CD.
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705 Accepted by both RH Unabridged and the Hasbro CD.
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709 Scrabble is a trademark of the Milton Bradley Co., Inc.
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710 The OSPD is a trademark of the Milton Bradley Co., Inc.
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711 Encarta is a trademark of the Microsoft Corp.
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712 UNIX is a trademark of AT & T.
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