OPINION For the love of words — bee offers new delights

LAURA MCFARLAND Managing Editor

Attending hogmanay, a traditional Scottish celebration of New Year’s Eve, is a long-held dream of mine.

“But maybe I need to say that a little quieter,” I said, as the context was seeing the word while perusing my official binder of words a few minutes before the start of the 49th annual Richmond TimesDispatch Regional Spelling Bee, held March 9 in Mechanicsville.

I’ve been helping with the spelling bee for several years, acting as the recorder in case a child or parent challenges a decision on a word. It’s not a glamorous job, and, thankfully, I am rarely called upon to put my replay skills into action. However, it does come with the aforementioned binder (lime green this year) filled with a whole host of new words I don’t know the meaning of, much less how to pronounce them, and the nerd in me enjoys the

3047Poorhouse random education each year.

Before I dive into my annual exercise in lexigraphy (the art or practice of defining words), I want to give a special shout out to Jermaine Harris, a fifth grader at Goochland Elementary School, who represented Goochland County in the spelling bee admirably, making it to the third round. Excellent job Jermaine!

Also as a point of reference, the winning word this year, spelled correctly in the 30th round by a Charlotte County middle schooler, was barometer.

Depending on a child’s age and experience with spelling bees, it is always interesting to see how they approach their turn. Do they hear the word once and plunge in or go all out, asking for the language of origin, a definition and for it to be used in a sentence?

Many of the words might seem obvious, but the trickery that is homonyms at times makes asking some of those questions critical. For example, in the same bee, contestants were asked to spell wield (to use especially with full command or power) and weald (a heavily wooded area). No discernable difference in how they are pronounced.

Alternate spellings can also be tricky, and in the case of this bee, extremely important. One speller was asked to spell caboodle (the way we saw it in our binders), which is simply a collection or lot. She spelled it as kaboodle and received the ding of the bell signifying she was wrong. She and her parents challenged it, and since the Merriam-Webster entry for kaboodle simply says “variant spelling of caboodle,” she re-entered the bee. By the way, the young lady, Joy-Den Wilson of Charlotte County, went on to win the bee.

The silly side of me always enjoys the silly sounding words, and there were plenty. I knew most of the ones that caught my eye: dillydally (to act with an unusual or improper slowness); flimflammer (one that gains his way by trickery and expedients); and codswallop (nonsense or drivel). I don’t know why hooroosh (a wild, hurried or excited state or situation) tickled my fancy, but I have always

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Letters

From A7

School Board member’s method of

METROCREATIVE ILLUSTRATION been honest with our readers about my nerdiness, and I am not going to stop now.

Good for you if you know that “manoletina” is defined as a right-handed movement of a cape by a matador in bullfighting. even more points if you can spell it right on the first try.

A large number of the words I wasn’t familiar with are tied to plants (absolutely not my wheelhouse) and animals, which makes for fun Google searches to see what they look like. When I looked up tenuiroster, which is any group of mostly passerine birds having slender bills, the top search result was the great knot, which is a small wader most likely to be found in Siberia, south-

Finding Answers Was Wrong

Dear Editor: In the last couple of editions, I have read several letters defending the innocence of school board member Angela Allen’s social media posting. Re- ern Asia or Australia than anywhere here. But to be honest (and bird enthusiasts don’t hate me for this) it looked pretty similar to many of the waders I see when I go to the beach.

I was actually more interested in finding an image of a upeygan (a black rhinoceros) but was unsuccessful. Maybe someday when I have a little more time to dedicate to the search. Funnily enough, many of the top search results were related to the use of the word in spelling bees.

As someone who often spends too much time not using proper posture at the computer, omodynia (pain in the shoulder) is all too familiar.

In a previous spelling bee, I learned about alectryomancy, which is divination by means of a rooster encircled by grains of corn placed on letters of the alphabet which are then put together in the order in which the grains were eaten. In this bee, I learned the meaning of catoptromancy, a divination by mirror or by crystal gazing.

Like crystal ball gazing, there are things I understand because I have seen them in practice but I couldn’t tell you the actual word that defines them. Such was the case with manoletina, which is a right-handed movement of a cape by a matador in bullfighting, in which a red cloth attached to a stick is held by the left hand behind the back. I am going to say I will stick to the cartoon representation of this action as I don’t have the stomach for the real thing. ally? For anyone with a question about a school situation, the correct way to handle the question is to address the situation with the appropriate school system leadership and to learn what the policy is. Then, still having questions or concerns, to have brought them to the school board.

Rounding out some of the other random words I learned were mandragora (an herb that has been credited with human attributes and made the subject of many superstitions, also known as a mandrake), which was giving me Harry Potter vibes even before I read the definition; pogonip, a dense winter fog containing frozen particles that is formed in deep mountain valleys of the western United States; and tamarin (small South American marmosets having elongate canine teeth, silky fir and long nonprehensile tails), some of which have fantastic looking mustaches.

Seriously, I didn’t expect to find an animal that rivaled the adorable features of the previously learned binturongs, but the tamarins give them a run for their money.

Laura McFarland may be reached at Lmcfarland@ powhatantoday.com.

This avoids inciting upsets without all the information or understanding needed. We all owe the school system this much professional respect.

Eileen Ford Columbia