Scrabulous, according to today’s Guardian (28 September), is a new online ‘facsimile version’ of Scrabble. Or was. The first version was scotched by Mattel, makers of the original, but the new Scrabulous, renamed ‘Wordscraper’, is catching on. Its big plusses include a cheat facility (you can look up unlikely words beforehand) and superior graphics (why would you need them?). Actually I think Mattel have done the Agarwalla brothers, the makers of Scrabulous, a big favour.

‘Scrabulous’ brings the following words to mind:

Scrofulous (diseased in appearance)
Crapulous (immoderate in drink)
Bibulous (as for ‘crapulous’, pretty much)
Scabrous (1. Scaly. 2. Dealing with salacious or indecent material)

I’m all for an evening of word games well lubricated with a nice sauvignon blanc, so perhaps the second and third terms shouldn’t be too off-putting. The fourth might be funny. But add them all together and it just sounds sleazy.

Now, what about ‘wordscraper’? Not exactly the most sonorous soubriquet. And I cannot think of a single scenario in which one might scrape a word.

(Acknowledgements to Webster's Online Dictionary)