Let This Lesbian Mom Help You Win at Scrabble

Like many writers, I love word games, and am eager to get a copy of the just-published fifth edition of The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, which includes more than 5000 new words. One of the new entries is the Yiddish word “schmutz” — and for those of you unclear on its meaning (hint: it’s not the same as schmuck), Judy Gold, a “comedian, actress, writer, and Jewish mother” (also a lesbian mom) is here to help you out.

Watch Gold offer a brief, hysterical tutorial below about how to use the word “schmutz.”

The Jewish Daily Forward has more on the Yiddish words allowable in the game (many of which were already in the previous edition). Alexandra Petri of the Washington Post takes a more cynical look at all the new additions, which also include bling, chillax, dubstep, geocache, hashtag, vlog, beatbox, fracking, frenemy, funplex, jockdom, joypad, mixtape, selfie, and sudoku. She proposes some tongue-in-cheek new rules to go along with them, and I can’t disagree. Personally, I think some of the new words have come into reasonably common usage and are names for things that won’t go away soon, but others are transient slang that will fade in a few years (chillax, frenemy).

As for “schmutz,” well, I can’t disagree with Judy.

I am a member of the Amazon Associates program, and get a small referral fee from all purchases made at Amazon.com via links on this site. You are under no obligation to purchase through them.