Tonight is the Championship Round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee. As a former 4th Grade Spelling Bee winner (yes, it’s true, although I got creamed going head-to-head against the 5th and 6th graders in the school-wide finals), I intend to watch at least some of the National Spelling Bee tonight. It’s on ABC at 8. (Get this: they broadcast the semis on ESPN!)

According to SpellingBee.com, there are 275 spellers competing this year, all ages 9 to 15. Of these spellers, 27 have at least one relative who has been to the Spelling Bee finals before.

Maybe you think I’m odd for getting into this sort of thing, but I love words. I’m crazy about words. I keep a dictionary open on my desk. My family laughs at me for keeping a list of words that contain all five vowels. (Not joking: my list has over 60 words like gregarious, pneumonia, and simultaneous. So I’m a dork. Fine.)

So of course I’m interested to learn that winning words from previous spelling bees include:

• appoggiatura
• autochthonous
• pococurante
• eudaemonic
• euonym

Eudaemonic: that’s another one for my list.

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