kavya shivashankar

Friday, May 29, 2009

won this year's national spelling bee by spelling "laodicean" -- lukewarm or indifferent, esp. in religion, as were the early christians of laodicea. the word the loser kid lost to or something like that was "maecenas" -- a generous patron or supporter, esp. of art, music, or literature.

okay, these are both greek terms, but they don't seem too difficult to spell, especially since they're pronounced (well, "maecenas" would be tricky still).

so it got me wondering if the words for spelling bees are getting easier. i looked them up, and actually, it looks like they've gotten much, much harder. compare the words from the 2000-2008 with those from 1970-1978:

1970 croissant 1971 shalloon 1972 macerate 1973 vouchsafe 1974 hydrophyte 1975 incisor 1976 narcolepsy 1977 cambist 1978 deification

2000 démarche 2001 succedaneum 2002 prospicience 2003 pococurante 2004 autochthonous 2005 appoggiatura 2006 ursprache 2007 serrefine 2008 guerdon

compared to the '00s' words, the '70s' words don't seem tough at all (narcolepsy? come on!)--in fact, the easiest word from the "modern" bees is "kamikaze," which was 1994's winner.

and the farther back you go, the easier they get--there's 1941's winner, "initials"; 1940's even-easier "therapy"; and 1932's laughable "knack."

anyway, full story here.

and does the nbs's seal remind anyone else of this?