Last year, we had trouble with ‘tongue.’ This year, at least according to Google, Washingtonians struggled to spell a certain flaky French pastry. You know the one, the crossant … crosant … croissant.
In honor of the Scripps National Spelling Bee—11-year-old Nihar Janga and 13-year-old Jairam Hathwar tied in the televised final last night—Google pulled data on the search query “how to spell” by state. While Jairam got ‘Feldenkrais’ and Nihar spelled ‘gesellschaft’, we collectively struggled with croissant. Our neighbors in Virginia and Maryland had an issue with ‘cancelled’ (which to be fair is an actual matter of debate).
Elsewhere in the country, North Dakotans asked about ‘attitude’, Utahns had questions about ‘leprechaun’, West Virginians wondered about ‘giraffe,’ and Californians, unfortunately, needed to learn how to spell ‘desert.’ While Alaskans wanted to know the correct spelling of ‘Hawaii,’ Hawaiians asked about ’boutineer.’ Massachusetts residents, meanwhile, weren’t exactly sure about ‘Massachusetts.’
Other terms made an appearance in multiple states, among them: ‘vacuum,’ ‘pneumonia,’ ‘definitely,’ ‘diarrhea,’ ‘gray,’ ‘appreciate,’ and ‘beautiful.’
Now if we could just find out “When Is Ramadan” and “Where Is Obama Today”? It turns out, those are the questions that D.C. asks more frequently than any other state, according to a recent analysis by Estately.
Virginians, on the other hand, are curious “Why is Virginia for lovers?” and “What is emo?” And Maryland is still trying to find out “Did O.J. do it?” along with “Is Joe Flacco elite?” and “Who unfollowed me?”
Rachel Sadon