Spelling List--Written Words..Essay Two

51. fuggy. Some might have heard David pronounce an "off-color" word here, but those words are not in the bee. I have written some humorous essays on words in the Collegiate you won't see in the bee [here and here and here, if you have a strong stomach, and want to laugh]. Fuggy, by the way, means a malodorous emanation. I think we have other words for this too...
52. polyptychs. It is correct this way. Don't let the "double y," which is rare in English, dissuade you from thinking differently. To spell this word right, just thing of triptych (a "three-fold" altar piece); polyptych (many-folded) will fit right into place.
53. hydrometeorology. Just spell patiently, and this is easy.
54. fissiparous. Think of fission, opposite of fusion, and parous follows easily.
55. buskins
56. scutcher. I got this word right because I carefully sounded it out. But few know that the verb scutch means "to separate the woody fiber from flax or hemp by beating." Thus, the scutcher is the instrument that does the separating. I think that this must have been from a world that no longer exists, though dictionaries are good at preserving these world for us..
57. chaffinches. The word-wizard went crazy on plurals this year. Indeed, whether to go "s" or "es" is hard, as is whether to go "ae" or "i" or even "ii."
58. synchronicity. If there was ever a word of the "1990s," this is it. I recall meeting all kinds of people where the idea of coincidence, a word much used in the 1970s, was replaced by synchronicity two decades later. Well, baby boomers had come of age in the 1990s, and we need new words for things, since we think that no one has ever felt what we feel.
59. libidinous. I would have guessed that the bee folk wouldn't have used such a word, though it certainly isn't as visually arresting as lubricious or lubricity. You can almost hear things squishing around with the latter words.
60. obtund. I think this is a popular psychological diagnosis when no one knows what is going on. It means "dull."
61. yawls. This has nothing to do with greetings Texans give to groups of people.
62. renunciatory
63. ukase. The reason I learned this word so that it now is effortless for me is that Dr. John Schilke, an Oregon winner of the national bee about six or seven years ago, likes to use the word in his conversation. It is an edict or pronouncement, and John sometimes talks about "giving a ukase." He pronounces it "you KAY see," though that doesn't seem to be one of the approved pronunciations.
64. efflorescence. You can see the flower open before your eyes as you hear this word.
65. indecipherable
66. villein. I think a lot of people got this wrong, thinking of course of the guy who does bad things. In fact, this is a term from the common law and old English times--for a person who is a free common villager.
67. garret. Not hard, but it can trip you up, especially if you are thinking of ways that people are killed (garotte).
68. arenaceous. This means "sandy," and we get our word "arena" from it. The original arena had sand-covered floor; hence the word.
69. furze. I was talking to a biologist from WY about this word, and he admitted that they don't have it in WY. It is all over the Pacific NW; hence it was easy for me. Hm. Well, with catadromous, pogonip and now furze, perhaps this test was more of a pro-Western test than I anticipated. Indeed, one of the words in the orals was kamaaina, a Hawaiian word, which Larry hit out of the park.
70. impecunious. What I now am, after you read the essay on how I actually got to the bee (next essay).
71. salaamed. This has nothing do to with the meat you put on a sandwich, but is derived from Arabic and is the word for peace (Salem/Shalom in Hebrew) or a greeting. Dar-es-Salaam is the capital of Tanzania.
72. tambourines. "Listen how I play my green tambourine." Do you think anyone from our generation would thus misspell this word?
73. freshets
74. jejune. I suppose this word could trip someone up, but once you get this in your vocabulary, you have all kinds of people you can associate with the term.
75. piton.

I don't think I missed any from this round.

Words 76-100

76. miasmically. Someone told me at the break that it took him forever to realize that "basically" wasn't spelled simply as "basicly." Now, he wants to put "cally" on all the words--which is good for this word.
77. greaves. You have to know your medieval armor to get this one right. Otherwise you will grieve when you get it wrong.
78. tabard. I guess when you have one word from medieval armor, you might as well have a second. So, we had tabard, the tunic worn by knights.
79. vexillologist. Many are vexed by such a word, but when you realize that the Latin for flag is vexilla, the word falls right into place.
80. nares. Has to do with the nostrils. Once I spent a day just learning words from the face, ectocanthion, supercilium, palpebrum, glabella, philtrum, pogonion and other terms. I think I have had more fun in one day, but I liked this activity.
81. obelia. Has to do with some kind of marine creature.
82. vizsla. Randy fell on this word in the final round last year. I feel for him, because he knew the word, and simply confused the "z" and "s." You can be sure that he didn't miss it this time, even if he might have no love for these dogs...
83. exedrae. Classical benches.
84. platinocyanide. Once you know it is made up of platinum and cyanide, it is a piece of cake, though you probably don't want to eat this one.
85. xerophilous. Once you hear "zero/xero" and know that is refers to "wood," think "x." Then, the "philous," is just someone/something who loves wood. Lovely.
86. dyne.
87. quoits. When I first began throwing the discus in high school (1967), someone once referred to it as the "quoit." I thought the guy was weird, but I never forgot the word gift he inadvertently gave me. Now, 41 years later, I was able to use it.
88. lamia. Has to do with some kind of scary creature from Scandanavian folklore. Lots of scary things in the cold north, I suppose.
89. transpicuous. Just as clear as translucent, I hope.
90. ringgit. I got this word wrong, and I kicked myself, because I had it right at first. No one really should know this word, but it was used in the oral test about two years ago, and almost everyone missed it then. No excuse for missing it now. I think missing this word knocked me out of the top three in misses in the written rounds.
91. chough. The bird.
92. leukotriene. This is defined as any of a group of eicosanoids. I only mention this because eicosanoid was a word in the oral competition, and a speller missed it. I may have spelled this word wrong--I can never keep straight when the Greek leuko (white) comes into English as leuko or leuco...
93. bharal. Sue won the tournament last year with this word. I sure wasn't going to miss it in 2008!
94. petrographer. Just sound it out. Simon Peter was called "petros" by Jesus because he was a "rock." The rest is easy.
95. squawk. Yikes, I just realized I misspelled this one. Must have been getting tired. I left out the "w." Everyone makes a dumb mistake...
96. longueurs. It means "dull places" in a book. Yikes, I got this wrong, too, spelling it as longeuers. Dumb!
97. tatterdemalion. Scott missed it, I know that..
98. recce. Tricky.
99. crwth. Only word without a vowel. Got it.
100. finis. Yep.

Conclusion

So, I guess I missed seven words. I missed six in the Oregon bee, which I won in April. Maybe next year I will miss fewer. Hope you did well!

[to the oral rounds]

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