COLUMBUS (WCMH) — Hyperpyrexia.
That was the word that eliminated a 13-year-old Olentangy Liberty Middle School student his spot in the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Hurshil Nittala, an eighth-grader from Powell, was eliminated in the first round of Tuesday’s quarterfinals, misspelling the word h-y-p-e-r-p-i-r-e-x-i-a.
Nittala was one of 74 students who made it to the quarterfinals, having advanced during Saturday’s round when he correctly spelled “bloggerati,” a word for people who write successful and popular blogs.
Other words he spelled correctly in the preliminary rounds were “sinophile” and “proprietary.”
In March, Nittala qualified for the National Spelling Bee by winning the state virtual regional bee. He was the winner out of 48 students, and his winning word was “sylph,” meaning a woman or girl who is thin, delicate, or graceful. He also spelled “worrywart,” “discountenance,” and “posthumous.”
Nittala’s sponsor for the National Spelling Bee is the Ohio University College of Business in Athens. According to his bio on the bee’s site, he writes books in his leisure time, including “The Chronicles of Inventia: The AI Uprising” and as co-author of a book titled “A Matter of Time.” He also loves modeling structures using paper and is a football fan.
ESPN3 will air the semifinals on June 27 and the finals on July 8.
And for those who are wondering, hyperpyrexia is a word of Latin origin meaning an exceptionally high fever.