"Prolers" is in no English dictionary and yet it's in several online Scrabble dictionaries. Is it an English word?

Question

Is the word prolers an English word or just rubbish/noise added to the Scrabble dictionary?

If it's a real English word, what does it mean?

(Not a general reference question by virtue of this word not being in the OED, Merriam-Webster, or any other English dictionary I could find.)

"prolers" is not in the scrabble dictionary according to http://www.hasbro.com/scrabble/en_US/search.cfm. — Mr. Shiny and New 安宇, Oct 04 '13 at 02:15
Okay, it is in an online Scrabble dictionary for several Scrabble games including the Scrabble-brand game for Android, but is NOT valid as a regular table-boardgame Scrabble word? So then it's a "noise word" in certain things like Words With Friends ,and the official Android Scrabble (TM) app, but it has no english meaning. — Warren P, Oct 04 '13 at 02:16
It's clearly a blend of prole and prowler. So a worker-thief. (-: — Peter Shor, Oct 04 '13 at 02:38
PROLERS is not in the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, the Scrabble Tournament Word List, or the Words with Friends dictionary, so I'm not sure why your apps are accepting it. Bug, maybe? Or is this just showing up in some online dictionary somewhere? Could you please link to it? — Bradd Szonye, Oct 04 '13 at 07:06
This question appears to be off-topic because it is about a spurious entry in a game dictionary, not an English word. — Bradd Szonye, Oct 04 '13 at 07:09
@BraddSzonye: The word is in the OED and two Chambers dictionaries. Those apps probably aren't official Scrabble games or are spin-offs, and probably use non-official Scrabble word lists too. See my answer. — Hugo, Oct 04 '13 at 09:42
It's accepted by the official Scrabble app on android. Which is weird because they use the scrabble trademark but obviously do not use the official scrabble dictionary. — Warren P, Oct 04 '13 at 12:51
If you use the word when speaking English, then it is an English word. — RegDwigнt, Oct 04 '13 at 21:09

score 5 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 15 '20 at 07:40

Proler is a real English word, but one that's not used any more. Whether it's accepted in Scrabble or Words with Friends or other word games is up to their official word lists.

It has no individual entry in OED online, but proler[s] appears in three 17th and 18th century quotations under prowler.

Searching Google Books, it can be found in The Chambers Dictionary (Page 1315, 1998):

prole2, proler Obsolete forms of prowl and prowler.

It also shows up in The Chambers Crossword Dictionary, 3rd edition (Page 96, 201 2):

prowler

06 patrol, proler, roamer 07 proller, prouler, stalker 08 tenebrio 09 nighthawk, scavenger

From there it's a short hop over to other (unofficial) Scrabble dictionaries.

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 04 '13 at 03:11

3

From the OED (1928), page 1447, second entry in second column of my photo-reduced edition:

Proler obs. form of prowler.

answered Oct 04 '13 at 03:11

Pieter Geerkens

2,669

It has no entry in OED online, but proler[s] appears in three 17th and 18th century quotations for prowler. – Hugo Oct 04 '13 at 06:06
@Hugo: I missed it initially, tucked in between two larger entries. Are you sure it isn't there? I never heard of the OED losing words before. – Pieter Geerkens Oct 05 '13 at 03:56
It's not there in thre alphabetic listing, but it's an electronic website so you can search using a computer. I don't think they've lost proler but rather merged its quotations under the prowler entry. – Hugo Oct 07 '13 at 06:24

"Prolers" is in no English dictionary and yet it's in several online Scrabble dictionaries. Is it an English word?

2 Answers2