The 2017 Spelling C-H-A-M-P
June 2, 2017
Yesterday, June 1, 12-year-old Ananya Vinay of Fresno, California, correctly spelled marocain to win the 90th Scripps National Spelling Bee at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center near Washington, D.C. Vinay, a sixth-grader at Fresno’s Fugman Elementary School, outlasted the 290 other regional champions to win the national spelling title. In the final rounds of the tense championship final, Vinay went head-to-head against 14-year-old Rohan Rajeev of Edmond, Oklahoma, who eventually misspelled marram (a coarse grass native to Europe), allowing Vinay to take the title with gifblaar and then marocain. Gifblaar is a poisonous shrub of southern Africa; marocain is a dress fabric of silk and wool or cotton. (Marocain is also the French word for Moroccan.)
Vinay, a three-time California state spelling champion, is the 13th consecutive Indian American to win the national spelling bee and the 18th of the past 22 winners with Indian heritage. She is also the bee’s first solo champion since 2013 (the last three competitions ended with co-champions). If you are curious what it takes to win the national spelling bee, here is a short list of this year’s correctly spelled championship round words: voussoir, Hypapante, poulaine, wayzgoose, and cheiropompholyx. (Definitions are below at the end of the article.)
The annual English language Scripps National Spelling Bee begins with 11 million students from the United States and its overseas territories as well from the Bahamas, Canada, Ghana, Jamaica, Japan, and South Korea. Regional competitions whittle the numbers down to the 291 students—ranging in age from 6 to 15—who travel to National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland, just outside the U.S. capital, for the championship “Bee Week.” Preliminary rounds reduce the field to 15 excellent spellers, who gather on stage for the bee’s championship final, which is broadcast nationally on ESPN. The bee winner earns $40,000 along with other prizes; $30,000 is awarded to second place. After winning this year’s competition, Vinay said she would split the cash prize with her 7-year-old brother and save her half for college.
The first National Spelling Bee, a much smaller event organized by the Louisville, Kentucky, Courier-Journal newspaper, took place in 1925. The E. W. Scripps Company, based in nearby Cincinnati, Ohio, has sponsored the spelling bee since 1941. The competition was not held for three years during World War II (1939-1945).
A voussoir is wedge-shaped piece of an arch or vault. Hypapante is a feast celebrated by the Eastern Orthodox Church. A poulaine is a type of pointed shoe. Wayzgoose is a printer’s annual employee event. Cheiropompholyx is a type of skin disease.