“Fainali, xen, aafte sam 20 iers ov orxogrefkl riform, wi wud hev a lojikl, kohirnt speling in ius xrewawt xe Ingliy-spiking werld.” – Mark Twain
The word is “psammophile,” which means “a plant or animal that prefers or thrives in sandy areas.” But what’s important about this particular word is not its meaning but rather the fact that 14-year-old Dev Shah of Largo, Florida, managed to spell it correctly to win the 2023 Scripps National Spelling Bee last week.
Founded by The Courier-Journal of Louisville, Kentucky, in 1925, the National Spelling Bee has been held annually during the week after Memorial Day except during World War II from 1943 to 1945 and during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Cincinnati-based E. W. Scripps Broadcasting Company acquired the rights to the program in 1941.
The contest is open to qualifying spellers who are not past the eighth grade as of the contest year and younger than 15 as of August of the previous year. After hearing the word they must spell, contestants have two and a half minutes to spell it correctly.
During that time they are allowed to ask the pronouncer questions about the word’s definition, part of speech, use in a sentence, language(s) of origin (but not etymology), alternate pronunciations, root word or they may ask to have the word repeated.
The bee’s first winner was 11-year-old Frank Neuhauser of Louisville, who captured the title by correctly spelling “gladiolus,” a flower that just happened to grow in his backyard.
The following year saw the contest’s first female winner, Pauline Bell, also of Louisville, who came up with the correct spelling of “cerise” (a bright or deep red color). Soon the bee would see nine consecutive contests (1932 to 40) being won by a girl.
In 1950 the National Spelling Bee saw its first tie. That’s when contestants Daina Reynard and Dean Colquitt exhausted the contest’s list of available words, making the winning word “meticulosity” (strict attention to minute details).
When Kingston, Jamaica’s Jody-Anne Maxwell spelled “chiaroscurist” (a painter who uses light and shade to create the illusion of volume) correctly in 1998, she became the event’s first black winner and also the first winner from outside the United States.
Twenty-three years later New Orleans teen Zaila Avant-garde spelled “murraya” (a genus of flowering plants in the citrus family) to become the bee’s first African American winner
But she wasn’t the first African American national spelling champion. According to National Public Radio, 14-year-old Marie C. Bolden (1894-1981) won a national spelling bee hosted by the city of Cleveland that was held before thousands of people in Cleveland’s new Hippodrome back in 1908, 17 years before the Scripps spelling bee was founded. The Cleveland contest is recognized as the first national spelling bee by Guinness World Records.
It’s said that Miss Bolden’s victory dealt a blow to racism when she spelled “500 words flawlessly to lead her hometown team, Cleveland, Ohio, to victory” over teams from Pittsburg and Erie, Pennsylvania, and one from New Orleans, which almost boycotted the contest after “its segregationist leaders balked at the inclusion of a black student.”
Miss Bolden prepared for the spelling bee by having her parents and friends help her memorize words and (of course) by reading the newspaper every day.
Speaking of newspapers, here’s some interesting trivia: On May 29, 1934, 12-year-old Sarah Wilson of Gray, Maine, won the National Spelling Bee (and $500) by correctly spelling “brethren” (fellow members of a male religious order). She was sponsored by the Portland Evening Express.
And one more bit of spelling trivia: In 2016, 11-year-old co-winner Nahar Janga of Austin, Texas, became the National Spelling Bee’s youngest ever winner, younger even than Frank Neuhauser, the National Spelling Bee’s first winner 91 years earlier.
Note: The quote believed to be from American humorist Mark Twain at the top of this column is part of a longer response he wrote regarding efforts at that time to simplify English spelling. Translation: “Finally, then, after some 20 years of orthographical reform, we would have a logical, coherent spelling in use throughout the English-speaking world.”
Jim Witherell of Lewiston is a writer and lover of words whose work includes “L.L. Bean: The Man and His Company” and “Ed Muskie: Made in Maine.” He can be reached at jlwitherell19@gmail.com.
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