‘AFFRICATE’ SPELLS END FOR TEEN AT NATIONAL BEE
Affricate. That’s the word that Tommy Cherry spelled incorrectly at the Scripps National Spelling Bee on Wednesday, ending his run to the finals.
He spelled it with only one “f.”
“Hard word. Never heard of it,” Tommy’s mom, Amy Cherry, told The Palm Beach Post.
Heck, neither have I. And unfortunately, neither had Tommy, a student at Christa McAuliffe Middle School west of Boynton Beach. (For the record, the definition of affricate is “a phoneme that combines a plosive with an immediately following fricative or spirant sharing the same place of articulation.” Huh?)
The loss came on his 13th birthday.
But Tommy made it to Round 3 — a feat for which he should be very proud — and is one of only five students from Palm Beach County competing in this year’s spelling bee in Washington, D.C. His Round 2 winning word was hebdomadal.
Ritvik Teegavarapu, a 14-year-old eighth-grader at Eagles Landing Middle School in Boca Raton, made it through Round 3 but did not score high enough on the written test to make it to today’s finals, which will be broadcast on television. Ritvik’s winning words were matelote in Round 2 and Quebec in Round 3.
Part 1 of the Finals will be shown from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on ESPN 2 and Part 2 will be shown on ESPN from 8:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.
The three other students from Palm Beach County should also be celebrated:
■ Xavier Adams: 14 years old; eighth-grader at Southern Christian Academy in West Palm Beach. Xavier correctly spelled pepo in Round 2 and misspelled basset in Round 3.
■ Arik Karim: 11 years old; sixth-grader at Bak Middle School of the Arts in West Palm Beach. Arik misspelled massasauga in Round 2.
■ Emily Snider: 10 years old; fifth-grader at The Benjamin School in North Palm Beach. Emily correctly spelled Valenciennes in Round 2 and misspelled mage in Round 3.
Despite their losses, the foursome still made their marks. And Tommy was featured on the spelling bee’s blog because of his birthday.
The entry, titled, “It’s still a good day,” said Head Judge Mary Brooks wished Tommy a happy birthday after he lost.
“We hope the Florida seventh-grader has a wonderful day,” the blog reads.
As for the word affricate, it’s one word I’m sure Tommy will unfortunately never forget.