Adoring Fans, Incognito Celebs Revel in Spelling's Super Bowl

Without warning, one contestant came face to face last night with something that you don't want to encounter while you are appearing live on network television: prosopopoeia. It's a rhetorical device, and, despite the poise and ability he had shown through many grueling rounds, Sidharth Chand, 12, was knocked out.

The last competitor remaining, Sameer Mishra, 13, was challenged with "guerdon." A guerdon is a reward. Sameer, who is from West Lafayette, Ind., got guerdon. And the guerdon.

Yes, it was a spelling bee. And yes, it was

H-U-G-E.

The 2008 Scripps National Spelling Bee is a Super Bowl of American academia, a place where 12-year-olds who can spell ophthalmoplegia are TV stars and spelling judges are hounded for autographs.

In the end, some of the nation's outstanding young word experts were winnowed down to Sidharth, a seventh-grader, who wore a tie and a pullover sweater, and Sameer, an eighth-grader in an orange shirt.

They were the last survivors of a dozen finalists; that dozen remained after youthful spellers battled all afternoon, starting with 288 contestants, going through 45 spellers in three rounds of semifinals and ending with 12 who advanced to the final round. The winner gets $35,000 and other prizes.

"Over the past 10 years, it has really, really grown," said Mary Brooks, the head judge of the bee, who has been involved with the competition for more than 30 years. As movies, books and even a musical have flooded popular culture with spelling bee stories, Brooks has seen her popularity soar, too.

"I guess I'm famous here in D.C. They ask me for autographs; they follow me," said Brooks, who is otherwise occupied as a junior high school teacher in Des Moines, Iowa. This week, she was tracked down by fans who recognized her in a hat and glasses and pleaded for her signature.

As the bee has become more popular, judges have had to work to make the word list harder and more varied, Brooks said.

Words that won in the past seem quaint: knack, 1932; vignette, 1952; catamaran, 1959; abalone, 1968.

In 2002, the winning word was prospicience; in 2004, autochthonous; last year, serrifine.