Spelling bees have been popular for decades, with the national winner usually competing for the title in Washington, D.C.  Through the years, the winning words have almost always been among the most unusual.

Here are a few of the words that created spelling bee national champions from recent years, and their definitions. 

Do you recognize any of them?

Scherenschnitte:  a scissor-cut design.  The paper snowflakes created by the class were a perfect specimen of scherenschnitte.

Nunatak:  the summit of a mountain that juts from a glacier.  The plane landed gracefully upon the nunatak of one of the northernmost peaks of the Alaskan Range.

Murraya:  A genus of flowering citrus plants.  Who knew that simple orange blossoms were part of the scientific genus of Murraya?

Feldenkrais:  An exercise to improve brain to body function.  The therapist worked with my father, for weeks after his accident, with Feldenkrais, but he claims it is just yoga.

Gesellschaft:A hypothetical society based on impersonal ties.  Plato was the first recorded advocate of a national gesellschaft.

Marocain:  A heavy fabric made from a silken and woolen mix.  The ladies of the manor took hours to dress in their gowns of marocain.

Auslaut:  The last sound of a word or syllable.  Certain languages put heavy accentuation on their auslaut conjugations.

Cernous: An adjective that describes a flower that droops by nature.   Wisteria is a perfect example of a cernous bloom.

Pendeloque:  A central gem in a pendant.  The diamond pendeloque was at least a full carat, but it appeared much smaller in the elegant setting.

Palama:  The webbing on the feet of ducks and other aquatic birds.  The colorful teal appeared to limp as a miniscule thorn perforated its palama.

Ultracrepidarian:  An adjective describing someone who gives opinions on a subject about which they know nothing.  The conversation became tedious as soon as my ultracrepidarian neighbor began pontificating on the Middle Ages.

Bougainvillea: A thorny, flowering vine in trees and bushes.  The mossy bougainvillea hung heavily from the trees, giving the atmosphere an eerie appeal.

Aiguillette: A cord with metal tips.  The museum displayed an ancient Roman aiguillete, which was a truly awful specimen.

Erysipelas: A bacterial infection of the upper layers of skin, with a raised rash.  Erysipelas is a form of cellulitis, and can be very serious.

If you did not know how to spell these words, or define them, you have company.  I did not know most of them either.  Most of us would just say “scissor-cut design” – which is far more easily pronounced, or “drooped flower” or “webbed feet” or “cellulitis”.  And who wants to know anything about an aiguillette or an ultracredpidarian neighbor? 

It’s interesting, nevertheless, how many ways we can define (and spell) our words, no matter which generation might be called upon to spell them.

Pass it on!