So, quick breakdown of the format is 12 Offlist spelling questions, then 12 vocabulary questions followed by two more vocabulary questions.

Spelling

  1. Grok (Literary term from Stranger in a Strange Land)
  2. Dissilient (Latin!)
  3. Sciapodous (Greek! Scia= Shadow + Pod= foot. I believe in one of the Chronicles of Narnia books there was a bunch of dwarve-like beings that had the one foot and used it as an umbrella/shade)
  4. Rucervine (Latin again? Rusa + Cervus= Rucervus (deer))
  5. Epollicate (Another Latin! E= without + Pollex= thumb)
  6. Indiscerptible (Latin once more In= not+ discerpere= tear apart)
  7. Sobornost (Russian)
  8. Passim (Latin, seriously?
  9. Avoirdupois (French- Avoir du Pois it’s pretty standard)
  10. Zuppa Inglese (Italian yum!)
  11. Diel (Latin- It’s the last finally. Di/a= day)
  12. Ljubljana (Of course they needed one Geo word from Yugoslavia)
Summary: 6 Latin Words, 1 Greek, 1 French, 1 Italian, 1 Literary, 1 Russian, 1 Geographical
There were a lot more Latin words than I thought there would be and a lot less Greek works than I expected. This list was 75% Romance Language words!!
VOCAB
  1. Flak- criticism (slang!)
  2. Restive- fidgety (This was a trick question!)
  3. Exculpatory- vindicate (ex= remove, culp= blame)
  4. Raise Cain- to cause a commotion (Scripps even tweeted about this! Biblical references/slang)
  5. Ailurophile- lover of cats, has a bunch of kittens (ailuro= cats, phile= love)
  6. Megillah- long involved story (Some Biblical references just like 4/slang)
  7. Pyrosis- heartburn (pyr= fire, osis= condtion)
  8. Haymaker- punch (this is a bit slangy)
  9. Cyclopean- massive, huge (Greek myths!)
  10. Tritaph- tomb with 3 chambers (Tri= three+ taph= tomb, think epitaph)
  11. Manque- unsuccessful, frustrated (manquer= to lack)
  12. Dianoia- opiniona (dia= through, noia (noos)- to think/mind)
Summary: 2 Latin, 5 Greek, 1 French, 3 Slang,  1 Yiddish/Hebrew
The amount of Greek in this round made up for the others. And also, are we seeing a trend towards the inclusion of more slang/literary terms?
EXTRA VOCAB
  1. Verso- left handed side (Latin, page being turned)
  1. Dromomania- wandering (Greek, dromo= run, wander, mania= obsession with)

 

The preliminary test was a bit on the easier side this year so I’m predicting a cutoff around 26-28 overall.