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Proper nouns are not playable in Scrabble, but I know (from studying words) that "bernie" and "bernies" is playable in Scrabble. But I cannot find a definition for the lowercase version anywhere online.

Help?

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1 Answer

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Apparently, in 1999, someone named Bernie Ecclestone tried to donate one million British pounds to the Labour Party, and since then, a "bernie" is a million pounds.

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He's the owner of Formula 1. He donated 1M quid to the UK labour party who in a totally unrelated move then agreed to exclude F1 from the ban on cigarette advertising. – mgb May 8 '11 at 5:33
"An honest politician is one who, when he is bought, will stay bought." -- Simon Cameron – Malvolio May 8 '11 at 18:05
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even better in this case. The government had to return the money, but because there was no connection between the donation and the exemption, F1 kept it's cigarette advertising. – mgb May 8 '11 at 19:50
@MartinBeckett -- even better. I feel like sending Bernie roses. Or a check. – Malvolio May 8 '11 at 19:54

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