Spelling Bee

According to the news, the final word of the most recent national spelling bee was "laodicean". That's a tough word! I don't think I've ever heard it before. It turns out that it refers to an ancient Greek woman named "Laodice". That's often true for very old and obscure words in English - they refer to some very old Greek or Roman person or place. The same is true for the words "odyssey", "august" (the adjective), and even the very common word, "Saturday"!