I understood exactly what they meant and was pretty sure it wasn't just an acronym so I looked it up.

It IS a word but it isn't (officially) a synonym of "imitates" - just the verb form of LARP.

Not fighting for either side, just thought it was interesting

Exactly! Words are just sounds that convey particular ideas, so I think "larps" qualifies nicely

Seems like all they would need to do is add a second sentence to clarify what the word means.

Who's letting the prescriptivists mark exams?

Fact, but "w00t" is. 🤦🏼‍♂️ Ergo, said "official" status is bullshit at best, and simply another dino system failing to keep up.

I don't disagree, I use words as they're understood whether they have an established definition or not.

The exact point I stopped caring was when I saw the wild and zany news article about Bootylicious getting added. Like oh....you just add slang for publicity and pick the ones most likely to hit the morning shows

LARP is an acronym, not a word.

Yup. This is the way it's always been, just with the pedestrian masses having less access to said process and its prescriptivist pool of gatekeepers. 🤷🏼‍♂️

And an acryonym is specifically an abbreviation that makes a pronouncable word. Like SCUBA or NASA. But not ATM or USA.

SCUBA is an acronym?

According to Merriam Webster It's short for "self-contained underwater breathing apparatus"

I pronounce it Oosa, so USA is an acronym for me.

TIL

I literally can't stand this kind of logic.