Re-bar's Penultimate Bee # 2 on March 3, 2008

In Round 3 each speller was given one, two or three words, until the time s/he missed three words and was eliminated from the competition. I wrote the words for about 17 of the spellers in this round. One or two had already been eliminated by the time we got to Round # 3, and I didn't write down the words of the person who spelled before me (I was speller # 10) so that I could "psych" myself up for my words. Let's go speller by speller, with definitions and possibly comments as we go.

Speller # 1: kaiseki, litiscontestation, makahiki. I remember being very impressed that she spelled the second word correctly, though she misspelled the others. Litiscontestation is "the formal entry of a suit in a court of law," either in a Civil Law system or in old Scots Law. A lis (genitive litis) in Latin is a lawsuit and contestationem is a noun of action from contestari, which means to take or call someone to witness. Thus, a litiscontestation is a "lawsuit which calls someone to witness..." or the filing of the suit. The Century actually has it as "the appearance of parties in court to contest their rights," which may seem to suggest something different than the mere filing of a cause of action, but let's say they are the same thing. Jeremy Bentham used the term in the early 19th century: "Expense of litiscontestation, defrayed as far as possible by the public..." While we are on this word, I might as well tell you that litispendence means the time during which a lawsuit is pending. Since the "litis" is in the genitive (possessive) case, it literally means the "pending time of the lawsuit."

When I practiced law in the "big firm," I ran into the notion of a lis pendens. While the phrase "lis pendens" is simply Latin for "lawsuit pending," it can also refer to a notice filed against a piece of property alerting a potential purchaser or lender that the property's title is in question. The two usages of lis pendens are really the same, because often, at the common law, it was property that satisfied a judgment; therefore, to have a lawsuit pending was tantamount to saying that your property may have a "cloud" on it or be in jeopardy. In the specific case on which I was working, a certain person, who has since left the jurisdiction, filed a lawsuit against one of our clients, claiming that our client's improper cashing of his $28 check led him to miss $4 million in business opportunities. He sued everyone in sight, including banks and the owner of the property where the company that cashed the check was located. He put a lis pendens on the block owner's property. This was, of course, 'over-the-top' activity, and we had to spank him pretty badly in court. The judge who threw out his suit, however, refused to award us attorney fees, even though some costs were awarded our client. The lawsuit filed was a nuisance suit, filed so that the plaintiff could get some chump change (he probably was hoping for $5,000-$10,000 from a number of defendants) before moving on to the next lawsuit. But we decided to expose the guy (he had been doing this in our jurisdiction for several years). Hence, the last time I heard of him he was filing suit in Washington, across the river....

Moving to Kaiseki

You see what spelling bees and words do to me? They give me an occasion to open up life and probe meaning wherever it may reside. And, I am only through 1 word of about 40 that I have on my lists...Well, let's boldly move on to word 2--kaiseki. It is a Japanese word to describe delicacies served at a banquet (mid 19th cent.) or at a meal served before tea (mid 16th cent.). It could also refer to a seating for a social gathering, esp. a tea or poetry party. Thus, it had reference to both an elaborate meal and a much more restrained or light meal. It first appeared in English in 1920, "A typical Japanese restaurant where a table d'hote dinner is served is known as a kaiseki restaurant." This 2005 article, from The Seattle Times (is this why they chose the word?), puts the two definitions together and talks about a the kaiseki meal as a formal meal before a tea ceremony. But then, as you read through the linked article, you are privileged to learn tons of other words describing various kinds of Japanese food. I don't want to get too far afield, but these words will eventually make it into later editions of our dictionary, and we might as well learn some of them now so you don't have to take the time in 20 years, when they become "official" English words. I will only introduce about five words.

A yuzu is a Japanese citrus fruit, more specifically "a variety of the bitter orange tree (Citrus aurantium) originating in China and now widely cultivated in Japan and Korea. Also--the edible fruit of this tree" (the OED says the word came into English in 1910). A welcoming brew of "hot water with fragrant yuzu" greets the customer. For festive New Year for Tea menu, the chef chose lobster served in special mukozuke (absent from the OED) dishes made expressly for kaiseki meals. Here is a picture of two mukozuke dishes from the 16th-17th centuries used to serve the meal. While a kaiseki meal doesn't have a main course in the Western sense, a highlight of the meal is the wanmori (not in the OED) or soup dish. The dahsi (not in the OED) or broth in which it is served is made with dried bonito (tuna) and kelp and then spiked with sweet mirin (the word has been attested in English since 1880--to mean a sweet alcoholic liquid resembling sake), among other things. Most kaiseki meals also include a grilled dish or yakimono (not in the OED) even though you can select a fried dish, an agemono, in its place. But I am a bit confused here, because yakimono, according to this website, is also the traditional Japanese pottery. Let's punt on this one now, and return to the bee. You can see, however, how a few words can become the vehicle for sophisticated and precise learning. I don't know if this will stave off Alzheimer's or enable you to find love in your life, but it will give you a deeper appreciation of the world "out there." And, it will give you this appreciation far before our slow Anglo dictionaries "catch up" with the world. If you want to learn more Japanese words relating to the kaiseki meal, read this.

Conclusion--Makahiki

Oops. I see I am running out of space in this essay, and I still am only with speller # 1. Her final word was makahiki (not in the OED). In the Hawaiian language the word makahiki means "year" as well as the change from harvest time to the beginning of the agricultural season. According to the Wikipedia article, it was a time of the year (about four months around the New Year) in honor of the god Lono, when religious ceremonies and festivities were held. War during these four months was kapu or taboo (kapu appears in the OED, being attested in English since 1933--"The kapu was the ancient social and religious law of Hawaii...The word can best be translated 'forbidden')." You see how good English spelling increasingly includes knowledge of other languages. Even though it will take a while to integrate lots of foreign words into our language (and the spellings will take a while to congeal), we do ourselves proud by learning them...

Let's move on, at the pace of snails, to speller # 2.

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