"Taboo" board game rule descrepancy. Can you help?

Question

Hello. Our group of tabooers had an arguement over a specific play that occured during this game. Here was the scenario:

The guess word was "bench." One of the guessers of that team said "bench warmer." The point was awarded, but eventually retracted after much discussion.

The argument for the point was that "bench" is a word within "bench warmer", therefore the guess word was pronounced. The other team's argument was that "bench" and "bench warmer" are two different words, and that the first part of the word needs to be stated alone to be valid.

Does anyone have any input for this problem? The rulebook does not mention this scenario.

Answer 1

In a situation like that, I usually let it go.  The giver didn't say the word, so why should the team be punished for almost getting the word.  However, I don't award the point at that point.  Instead, I would say something like "the first part of that" and make my team mate just say "bench."  I don't know if that is within the rules of the game, but it seems within the spirit.

Answer 2

bench warmer is two words and even if it was considered one word, which it is not, it would still be wrong because you can not say the geuss word. and they did, so they lose.

what they dont get is that its not benchwarmer, it is bench warmer. a person that warms the bench.  it is TWO words!  u can not open a dictionary and find a definition for  bench warmer, but you can find seperate definitions for bench and warmer.

Answer 3

Your team was right - you cannot use the guess word to describe it. Even though two different words are used, one of them is still the guess word, regardless of how many words you put before or after it. If people ignored this rule, they might just start saying random things like "Baseball team bench warmers sitting down" or something like that :P

you can work any words in

Answer 4

I don't think BENCHWARMER and BENCH are the same.

Therefore, the team that said BENCHWARMER shouldn't have gotten the point.

Because a person and an object aren't completely similar... Even though the word "bench" is in it, the team probably thought about the PERSON not the OBJECT.

Answer 5

wouldnt it defeat the purpose of the game if you were allowed to say the word or part of the word youre supposed to guess? the word bench is subsumed in the word benchwarmer/bench warmer, regardless of its two words or not. of course bench and benchwarmer are two different words, but both contain the word bench, which is what youre trying to guess, so no, you and your teammates shouldnt be allowed to say the very same word youre trying to get them to guess.

Answer 6

in taboo it is a rule that you cannot say the word istself or a word that contains the word

...........at least im pretty sure of that............

Answer 7

I would say no.  Dog and doghouse are not the same thing nor are cat and cat house.  In both cases "doghouse" and "cat house" are considered considered a word in modern grammar.

Answer 8

Its realy a loop hole in the game. My opinion on it is that it is ok if it is one whole word, and not two seprate words.

Jackmac :P~

Answer 9

oh now I get what you were saying.

I think your argument is better.

Answer 10

From the rulebook I have:

"No form or part of ANY word printed on the card may be given as a clue. Examples: If the Guess word is PAYMENT, "pay" cannot be given as a clue. If DRINK is a Taboo word, "drunk" cannot be given as a clue. If SPACESHIP is the Guess word, you can't use "space" or "ship" as a clue."

So since you can't use part of the taboo word as a clue, I would argue the same is true for the opposite. You can't use the taboo word as part of a clue.