After watching his sister try three times to win the Scripps Nationals Spelling Bee, Sameer Mishra put himself on a mission. "I told my mom I was going to do the bee," Sameer said. "And if I was going to do it, I was going to win it one day. And I guess it happened."

Did it ever. With the sister coaching him, Sameer augmented his spelling talent with a sense of humor that often kept the Grand Hyatt Ballroom audience laughing. The 13-year-old from West Lafayette, Ind., was finally all business when he aced "guerdon" — a word that appropriately means "something that one has earned or gained" — to win the 81st version of the bee Friday night.

"I'm not used to people laughing at my jokes — except for my sister," Sameer said.

Appearing in the bee for the fourth time and a top 20 finisher the last two years, Sameer clenched both fists and put his hands to his face after spelling the winning word. He won a tense duel over first-time participant Sidharth Chand, 12, of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., who finally stumbled on "prosopopoeia," a word describing a type of figure of speech.

Sameer was a crowd favorite throughout the tournament. When told one of his words in the semifinals was a dessert, he deadpanned: "That sounds good right now." He rolled his eyes and muttered "wonderful" when told that one of his words had five different language roots. He once asked "Are you sure there are no alternate pronunciations?" and later uttered "That's a relief" after initially mishearing the word "numnah" (a type of sheepskin pad).

And what did he have to say while hoisting the heavy trophy? "I'm really, really weak."

Sameer, who won more than $40,000 in cash and prizes, likes playing the violin and the video game "Guitar Hero" and hopes one day to be a neurosurgeon. He tried to watch the movie "Ratatouille" during the long wait before the finals but found he "couldn't really relax that much." His sister, Shruti, cried after her brother's victory on a day in which she received her own big news: She was accepted to Princeton.

"A big day for the family," said Sameer's father, Krishna Mishra, who moved to the United States from central India and teaches microbiology.

Sameer also became the first speller to win the title after misspelling his on-stage word in the preliminary round. He flubbed "sudation," yet managed to remain in the competition on the strength of a high score in the written test.

"When I missed that word in the preliminaries, I was really shocked and I was really sad," Sameer said. "I thought my chances were gone."

Third place went to Tia Thomas, 13, from Coarsegold, Calif., who was eliminated on "opificer" (a skilled or artistic worker) when she started the word with an "e" instead of an "o." Tia was one of the favorites, appearing in her fifth and final bee after an eighth-place finish a year ago.

Congratulations, Sameer Mishra
2008 Scripps National Spelling Bee Champion

"It was so frustrating. I was like, 'I know all these other words,'" Tia said. "This year has been awesome, but it's real disappointing."

The finals were aired live in prime time on ABC, and it appeared for a while that the broadcast could run late into the night. Twenty-four of the first 25 words were spelled correctly, with the dictionary-familiar competitors breezing through words such as "brankursine," "cryptarithm," and "empyrean" with barely a hitch.

Rose Sloan was so familiar with "alcarraza" (a type of jug) that the 13-year-old from River Forest, Ill., couldn't stop laughing in glee when pronouncer Jacques Bailly uttered it. She was later eliminated on "sheitel" (a wig worn by Jewish women).

It was somewhat surprising who didn't make the finals. There were no Canadians — and no Matthew Evans.

Matthew, also a favorite to win in his fifth and final appearance, was stunningly eliminated during the semifinal round Friday when he misspelled "secernent," a word dealing with secretion and one that somehow eluded him as he studied his personal 30,000-word list. He ended it with "-ant."

The 13-year-old from Albuquerque, N.M., stayed in the comfort room for more than a half-hour, and his eyes were still red when he emerged.

"It's disappointing," said Matthew, choking back tears. "I know a lot of people were rooting for me."

All seven representatives from Canada were vanquished in a span of about 20-minutes in the first semifinal round. No Canadian has ever won the bee, but the country always fields a strong contingent. Nate Gartke of Alberta was last year's runner-up.

"Seven up, seven down," said Pam Penny of Ancaster, Ontario, whose daughter, 10-year-old Veronica, was eliminated on the French-rooted word "etagere." "Very disappointing. Especially for Canadians to go down on French words."

Among the spectators was 94-year-old Frank Neuhauser, the winner of the first national bee in 1925. Asked to spell his winning word from 83 years ago, Neuhauser rattled off the letters to "gladiolus" as if he were racing through his ABCs.

"It's an easy word," said Neuhauser, who attracted a long line of teen and preteen autograph-seekers. "Nobody could miss it, but the second (-place) girl did."

Neuhauser's prize was $500 in $20 gold pieces. He also was feted with a parade through his hometown of Louisville, Ky.

"It was a lot easier back then," Neuhauser told the audience. "There were only eight competitors instead of 288. I'd never make it now."

The 288 spellers that entered this year's bee was a record. Forty-five of them made it past the preliminary and quarterfinal rounds Thursday to compete on Friday.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080531/ap_on_re_us/spelling_bee;_ylt=AmhVysr4AZeABRJaUVsKuQYazJV4

About the Bee

The Bee is the nation’s largest and longest-running educational promotion, administered on a not-for-profit basis by The E.W. Scripps Company and 280 sponsors in the United States, American Samoa, The Bahamas, Canada, Europe, Ghana, Guam, Jamaica, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, South Korea, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Sponsorship is available on a limited basis to daily and weekly newspapers serving English-speaking populations around the world. Each sponsor organizes a spelling bee program in its community with the cooperation of area school officials: public, private, parochial, charter, virtual, and home schools.

Schools enroll with the national office to ensure their students are eligible to participate and to receive the materials needed to conduct classroom and school bees. During enrollment, school bee coordinators receive their local sponsor’s program-specific information—local dates, deadlines, and participation guidelines. For an overview of the enrollment process, click here.

The official study booklet is available free online at www.myspellit.com.

The champion of each sponsor’s final spelling bee advances to the Scripps National Spelling Bee competition in Washington, D.C.

Purpose

Our purpose is to help students improve their spelling, increase their vocabularies, learn concepts, and develop correct English usage that will help them all their lives.

Eligibility

In general, the program is open to students who have not reached their 15th birthday on or before September 1, 2007; who have not passed beyond eighth grade on or before February 1, 2008; and who attend schools that enrolled for participation during the 2007-08 academic year.  A complete list of eligibility requirements may be found in the Contest Rules of the 2008 Scripps National Spelling Bee.

History

The Louisville Courier-Journal started the event with nine contestants in 1925. In 1941 Scripps assumed sponsorship of the program. There was no Scripps National Spelling Bee during the World War II years of 1943, 1944, and 1945. Co-champions were declared in 1950, 1957, and 1962. Of the 83 champions, 43 have been girls and 40 have been boys. Click here for a complete listing of champions and their winning words.

What is the origin of the term spelling bee?

QUESTION:
Where did the term spelling bee come from?

ANSWER:
The word bee, as used in spelling bee, is one of those language puzzles that has never been satisfactorily accounted for. A fairly old and widely-used word, it refers to a community social gathering at which friends and neighbors join together in a single activity (sewing, quilting, barn raising, etc.) usually to help one person or family. The earliest known example in print is a spinning bee, in 1769. Other early occurrences are husking bee (1816), apple bee (1827), and logging bee (1836). Spelling bee is apparently an American term. It first appeared in print in 1875, but it seems certain that the word was used orally for several years before that.

Those who used the word, including most early students of language, assumed that it was the same word as referred to the insect. They thought that this particular meaning had probably been inspired by the obvious similarity between these human gatherings and the industrious, social nature of a beehive. But in recent years scholars have rejected this explanation, suggesting instead that this bee is a completely different word. One possibility is that it comes from the Middle English word bene, which means "a prayer" or "a favor" (and is related to the more familiar word boon). In England, a dialect form of this word, been or bean, referred to "voluntary help given by neighbors toward the accomplishment of a particular task." (Webster's Third New International Dictionary). Bee may simply be a shortened form of been, but no one is entirely certain.

References:

A Dictionary of American English. Sir William A. Craigie and James R. Hulbert, eds. University of Chicago Press, 1944.

A Dictionary of Americanisms. Mitford M. Matthews, ed. Univ. of Chicago Press, 1951.

Mencken, H.L. The American Language. New York: Alfred Knopf, 1938 (suppl. I, 1945: suppl. II, 1948).

http://www.spellingbee.com/terminology.asp

Study Zone

http://www.spellingbee.com/about.asp

Carolyn's Corner, a 36-week study course offered during the traditional school year

A speller's poem might help provide some relief from pre-Bee tension you might be experiencing at this time.

Who Cares?

a spelling word poem by me, Alison Miller

Alison Miller
Times Union, Albany, New York, representative to the 1998 and 2000 Scripps National Spelling Bees

This poem was submitted with Alison's 1998 spelling notebook when she was a sixth grader. Alison also coined the title of a collection of eponyms called "Eponym City."

At the 2000 Scripps National Spelling Bee, Alison came in third!

Copyright 2008 Scripps National Spelling Bee. All Rights Reserved.

http://www.spellingbee.com/poem.shtml

Alison also coined the title of a collection of eponyms called "Eponym City."

Eponyms

Do you sometimes have trouble spelling people's names? I do! Once I learn to spell a difficult name, though, I often forget that it gave me trouble at one time. The spelling just gets committed to memory, and I can reel it off without a thought.

The following eponyms have been submitted during the 2007–2008 school year.
Check this list often to see if new submissions have been posted:

Click the link below:

http://www.spellingbee.com/cc08/Week06/eponyms.shtml

http://www.spellingbee.com/glance/talk_to_judges.shtml

Carolyn's Corner
At-a-Glance

Carolyn's Corner covers many aspects of spelling study and competition. Some of these aspects are probably of more interest to you than others. It can be very time-consuming to wade through all the Carolyn's Corner material to obtain the information that is of most interest to you. If you would simply like to "hit the high spots" of the Carolyn's Corner schedule, this page is for you!

STUDY TIPS (clicking the link )

http://www.spellingbee.com/glance.shtml