In which I spell well enough

[magid]

There's a corporate spelling bee next Thursday, and I'm one of three people representing my corporate division!

There were 26 words to spell; I tied for best by getting 14 correct. Yay! OK, only ten people tried. Still...

The words, from easy to hard, one beginning with each letter of the alphabet.

10 people spelled
WEIRD = strange or extraordinary

9 spelled
ZEPPELIN = a rigid airship
JICAMA = a Mexican climbing vine

8 spelled
SCRUMPTIOUS = tasty
HIERARCHY = authoritarian government
PIZZERIA = place that makes and sells pizzas
LUFTMENSCH = an idler, dreamer
XANTHIC = yellow, as flowers

7 spelled
BIFURCATION = forking

6 spelled
YARBOROUGH = bridge hand with only low cards

5 spelled
CONNOISSEUR = expert capable of acting as a judge
QUERCITRON = black oak tree or its bark

3 spelled
KUDIZE = to praise
VICHYSSOISE = leek soup
DVANDVA = compound word expression

2 spelled
USUFRUCT = right to enjoy something
GOBEMOUCHE = gullible person

1 spelled
INOCULATE = inject with sera
OMBROPHILOUS = rain loving
EMOLUMENT = profit from one's labor
ARENACEOUS = growing in sandy places
NENUPHAR = Egyptian water lotus
FIRNIFICATION = compaction of snow on glaciers

No one correctly spelled
RHABDOMANCER = one who divines using rods or wands
MUGIENT = making a lowing sound like cows
TOURNEDOS = a fillet of beef tenderloin

The one that most surprises me is usufruct, since I've run into it enough times to think it more 'normal' than, oh, xanthic.

Wish me luck for the actual bee.

Comments

[queue.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure xanthic was used as one of the words in one of the previous spelling things.

Usufrcuct is not a normal word.

How could people not get bifurcation?

Any words that you got that no one else did?

[magid.livejournal.com]

Reuse of xanthic? I should keep that in mind.

I don't remember where I ran into usufruct, but I think it was some translation of Jewish legal text.

I don't know how people didn't get bifurcation, but I'd guess that the u became another vowel.

Alas, I got nothing that no one else did (I put an extra n in inoculate, which was the only one I had a chance at), and I'm still a bit annoyed at myself for missing tournedos; I know I've seen that word before.

[(Anonymous)]

Hmmm, it's inoculate, but innocuous.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Aha! I knew there was a reason for an extra n!

[treacle-well.livejournal.com]

Xanthic seems vaguely familiar, but if I saw it out of any context I'd have no clue what it meant.

Usufruct is a word I'm sure I've never, ever seen.

My thought as well--how could people not get bifurcation?

I also wondered if magid spelled anything correctly that none of the others did.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I think the only reason xanthic looks vaguely familiar to me is seeing xanthan gum on ingredient lists.

[fetteredwolf.livejournal.com]

Wow, and I thought I had a pretty extensive vocabulary. I definitely wouldn't have gotten:
xanthic
yarborough
quercitron (although if it's pronounced like it's spelled I could have spelled it without the definition)
dvandva
usufruct
gobemouche
nenuphar
rhabdomancer- again, only spelling, not definition
mugient

I can't believe people couldn't get inoculate, but I guess you don't work in a lab ;)

[fetteredwolf.livejournal.com]

Oh, and GOOD LUCK! =)

[magid.livejournal.com]

The only reason I got yarborough is living in MA too long :-). And quercitron is pronounced like it's spelled, so that was ok.

Yeah, no lab for me. I've been inoculated, though, so I should know it, but I really wanted two n's...

And thanks.

[library-sexy.livejournal.com]

"Glad it is you and not me" she says as she hits spell check.

[magid.livejournal.com]

*grin*

I'm lucky that the bee has teams working together, and there are pencils and paper, 'cause I can't spell in my head well at all - I have to see it written out.

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

"Mugient" is an awesome word, and I don't know how I survived this long without it!

Good luck :)

[magid.livejournal.com]

I think I spelled that starting "moo-" :-).

Thanks!

[treacle-well.livejournal.com]

Yeah. That's one that I'd have a much better chance of spelling correctly without the definition.

congratulations

[curly-chick.livejournal.com]

I am pretty confident I wouldn't have gotten anything after

QUERCITRON

Re: congratulations

[treacle-well.livejournal.com]

That's pretty much the point in magid's list where I said the same. But I might have gotten "VICHYSSOISE" (I've been looking a soup recipes lately) and probably would have done fine with INOCULATE (although there's a chance I would have made the same double-n error she did.)

Re: congratulations

[magid.livejournal.com]

I doubled the wrong s in vichyssoise, but otherwise had it right. (I knew it was only one s that was doubled, too.)

When I looked back over the list, there's a lot of food words.

Re: congratulations

[magid.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

I've always been decent at spelling. (Not amazing; I'd have to work much harder for that.)

[cnoocy]

Good luck. Watch out for CHLAMYDEOUS (which I did not get) and PSITTACINE (which I did).

[magid.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I suspect I'd get neither of those, alas. Need to brush up on my Latin :-).

Anything you'd suggest for practice/prep?

[cnoocy]

Not really. You could skim a dictionary, but you'd just be hoping to hit the words you'll actually receive.

[powerfrau.livejournal.com]

CooooooL. Notice i would have lost for editing and for spelling! Ah'm laik articulit, ya know.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Yabbut, this isn't testing editing :-)