From Scripps, the media company behind the spelling bee:
- In 1996, Jimmy McCarthy of St. Petersburg, Fla., became the first profoundly deaf contestant to compete in a national spelling bee. He tied for 48th place out of 247 spellers.
- The favorite spelling bee word, as voted by Scripps National Spelling Bee contestants is "Aeschylean," an adjective that comes from the Greek poet. It means "of, relating to, or suggestive of the Greek tragic poet Aeschylus". Bet you didn't know that one!
- The most frequent word on the Scripps National Spelling Bee word lists has been the French, "connoisseur".
- Several home-schoolers have been champions of the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Rebecca Sealfon (1997) and George Thampy (2000) were home-schoolers at the time. Sean Conley (2001) attended private school during the year of his championship but was previously home-schooled. Evan O'Dorney (2007) was a charter school student who received a great deal of his education via home-schooling as well.
- Since 2005, when Canadians first began in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, they have made some strong finishes to represent their country. Finola Hackett (2006) and Nate Gartke (2007) took second.
- Word origins are sometimes surprising. For example, terms for Mexican foods like tamale and chipotle, as well as foods like avocado and chocolate, actually come from Nahuatl. This was the language spoken by Aztecs when Cortes arrived in 1519.
- In 1946, the Scripps National Spelling Bee was aired on network television for the first time.
- There is a myth that home-schooled students always take the prize; but, in fact, four of the last five winners were public school students.
- Jody-Anne Maxwell of Jamaica, in 1998, was the first contestant from outside the United States to win.
- The official dictionary for the Scripps National Spelling Bee is the Webster's Third New International Dictionary that contains more than 472,000 word entries, counting its addenda.
- Participation in the bee is up 74 percent since the mid 1980s when spell-check usage became widespread.
- Frank Neuhauser of Louisville, Ky., won the first National Spelling Bee with the word "gladiolus" back in 1925. He died March 22, 2011, at age 97.
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