Word of the Day: Ursprache

Katharine Close was the winner of the Scripps National Spelling Bee because she correctly spelled the word ursprache. She knew when she heard the word that the game was over and she had won.

Ursprache: protolanguage, a language that is the recorded or hypothetical ancestor of another language or group of languages. German origin: "ur" meaning "out of" and "sprache" meaning "language or speech." (From answers.com)

Even gamblers got into the act, putting money down on questions including whether the final word would have an "e" in it and whether the winner would wear glasses.

Simon Noble, CEO of PinnacleSports.com, said his offshore Internet sports betting company had received about $70,000 in wagers on seven propositions about the bee as of noon Thursday. Link