Meet Dev Shah, the 14-year-old who won the Scripps National Spelling Bee with ‘psammophile’

Associated Press via NBC News ^ | 06/02/2023

[SeekAndFind]

OXON HILL, Md. (AP) — Fifteen months ago, Dev Shah spent a miserable five hours spelling outdoors in chilly, windy, damp conditions at a supersize regional competition in Orlando, Florida, only to fall short of his dream of returning to the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

“Despondent is the right word,” Dev said. “I just didn’t know if I wanted to keep continuing.”

Look at him now.

Soft-spoken but brimming with confidence, Dev asked precise questions about obscure Greek roots, rushed through his second-to-last word and rolled to the National Spelling Bee title Thursday night.

Dev, a 14-year-old from Largo, Florida, first competed at the national bee in 2019, then had his spelling career interrupted. The 2020 bee was canceled because of COVID-19, and in the mostly virtual 2021 bee, he didn’t make it to the in-person finals.

He flexed his knowledge in Wednesday’s early rounds by asking questions that proved he knew every relevant detail the bee’s pronouncers and judges had on their computer screens. And when it was all over, he held the trophy over his head as confetti fell.

Dev’s winning word was “psammophile,” a layup for a speller of his caliber.

“Psammo meaning sand, Greek?” he asked. “Phile, meaning love, Greek?”

Dev soaked up the moment by asking for the word to be used in a sentence, something he described a day earlier as a stalling tactic. Then he put his hands over his face as he was declared the winner.

[redshawk]

that was a real funny clip.
thanks for posting.

[ABN 505]

My nephew won the Scripps Howard championship in Japan and competed in Washington in the finals. [He lost]. It was funny though when they called his [all Irish name] as the Japanese Champion everyone was scratching their heads. His Dad my brother was stationed at Misawa AFB and he was born and raised in Japan.

[Cronos]

The winner is Dev “Shah” — “Shah” is not a Brahmin caste surname —> it is Shah is an Indian surname in Gujarati language and Kutchi language that is used by Hindu, Jain and Muslim communities. Shah surname usually represents the Bania caste meaning the merchant caste (3rd level) in Jain and Hindu communities.