Nigel Hayes
Find Your Writing Niche: Nigel Hayes and Words
While writing a story to promote the Adult Spelling Bee in Brunswick County, N.C., I learned that Nigel Hayes, a University of Wisconsin basketball player, has the reputation at press conferences for using difficult words to spell. After Wisconsin defeated Kentucky in the NCAA Final Four Basketball tournament, he used the word “logorrhea.”
Merriam-Webster dictionary defines logorrhea as excessive and often incoherent talkativeness or wordiness. Hayes has said he uses difficult words to spell “Just to give the stenographer a hard time.”
His parents say that growing up, he was an avid reader, and his father said, “If it were up to him, he would’ve walked around with a Thesaurus all day.”
Other young men can improve their vocabulary and spelling by following in Hayes’ footsteps. Among the unusual words he has used are:
- Cattywampus
- Onomatopoeia
- Soliloquy
- Zephyr
- Xylophone
A Google search calls up a myriad of stories. One is at
