haruspicy: In Roman practice inherited from the Etruscans, a haruspex (plural haruspices) was a man trained to practice a form of divination called haruspicy, hepatoscopy or hepatomancy. Haruspicy is the inspection of the entrails of sacrificed animals, especially the livers of sacrificed sheep. The rites were paralleled by other rites of divination such as the interpretation of lightning strikes, of the flight of birds (augury), and of other natural omens. (from Wikipedia)
This was one of the Round 3 words at the annual Atlanta spelling bee (aka Orthographic Meet) that was held last weekend. I've been going to it for a few years since my friend Ed Martin turned me on to it. Ed is a middle-aged man with a thick Southern drawl and a slightly goofy demeanor, but don't let that fool you, he's whip smart.
Now, this is not the kids spelling bee, and there's nobody standing in front of a microphone. About a hundred or so literati gather at Manuel's Tavern on the third Saturday in February and do their best at the 50 words that Ed and his overread pals have selected for that year. Four rounds, with only the highest scoring folks moving on from each round.
Round 1 examples: "gaffe", "solder", "concede"; all words that a reasonably smart person should be able to spell
Round 2 examples: "sagittal", "foie gras"; "duende"; words that you've probably heard of but would have some trouble getting
Round 3 examples: "fractile", "rhabdomancer", "demesne" ; words that you've probably never heard of and so you're just going to have to wing it based on the pronunciation and the definition
Round 4 examples: "sericious", "ajimez", "balmacaan"; words that are just impossible to spell. Often they'll be of non-English origin (frequently Arabic, damn transliteration!) but have somehow wormed their way into the English dictionary. Perhaps you'll get lucky with a word that you've heard of -- one year they had "shanachie" which would be familiar to folk musicians both by the definition and the fact that it's the name of a record label. But probably you'll just stifle a groan and reach for your beer.
I go every year just hoping to A) get through Round 1 without embarrassing myself and B) make it through Round 2. I think that happened once. Otherwise we just sit around and drink and wonder about the lives of the folks that make it to the last round ...
Here are the 2000 and 2001 words, with sound files so you can give it a shot yourself. See you at Manuel's in 2008!