If your third-grader is competing in the 2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee, good news: “W-O-M-Y-N” is now an acceptable spelling of “women.” (What a time to be alive!) In fact, “W-O-M-Y-N” is explicitly listed on the National Spelling Bee’s list of 50 “study words” that’s distributed to third-graders. Nobody knows when spoken language began, but written language developed independently in Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, and Mesoamerica. Presumably, shortly after the emergence of writing, was the emergence of the crotchety, ornery, spinster schoolteacher who’d shame you before the class when you misspelled a word. And now, the proper spelling of women is...