Peak Spelling?

Sarah Kliff notes the incredible increase in difficulty of winning spelling bee words:

Last night, 14-year-old Snigdha Nandipati won the Scripps National Spelling Bee by correctly spelling the word “guetapens,” an obscure French word that describes a snare or a trap. This follows on other spellers taking stabs at words like schwarmerei (to be enthusiastic), ericeticolous (a “heathlike” habitat) and schwannoma (a type of tumor, obviously).

The spelling bee wasn’t always this hard. In 1932, Dorothy Greenwald won the bee by correctly spelling “knack.” The 1993 champion earned his glory by spelling “kamikaze” — perhaps not the easiest word to spell, but certainly no guetapens. Other winning words from the past include therapy, croissant and initials. Yes, initials.

And in the spirit of soda, perhaps Mayor Bloomberg should consider a ban on spelling words of 3 or more syllables, as they are a public health hazard:

In 2004, one speller famously fainted when asked to spell alopecoid (which, in case you didn’t know, means foxlike). He actually wasn’t the first fainting incident brought on by competitive spelling: A 13-year-old competitor from Brooklyn fainted at the 1949 National Spelling Bee upon elimination.

Spelling two words, each consisting of only two syllables, would of course remain legal.

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