‘Phlegm’ Wins San Diego County Spelling Bee

Spelling Bee file (Chip Somodevilla / Getty)
Chip Somodevilla / Getty

Seventh-grader Ella Peters of Notre Dame Academy in Carmel Valley won the San Diego Union-Tribune Countywide Spelling Bee, and booked a place in the national finals, with the word “phlegm.”

As local ABC News affiliate 10 News pointed out, it was a timely, if difficult, word for the flu season, still in swing across southern California. And, among adolescents, it is a word with timeless appeal.

Webster’s online dictionary actually offers two definitions of the term “phlegm”:

  • a thick, yellowish liquid that is produced in the nose and throat especially when a person has a cold
  • calmness in a difficult or unpleasant situation

Peters certainly showed the latter.

Photo: file

 

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