Kavya Shivashankar won the Spelling Bee last night by spelling the proper adjective “Laodicean,” which means lukewarm or indifferent in religion or politics.

The word derives from the proper noun Laodicean, which refers to early Christians living in an ancient city in Asia Minor called Laodicea, the motto of which, apparently, was “meh.”

In the Bible’s Book of Revelation (3:14-16) the angel of the church of the Laodiceans writes:

“I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm-neither hot nor cold-I am about to spit you out of my mouth.”

Shivashankar didn’t ask the judges to use the word in a sentence, but if she had, they might have said, “A prolonged absence from Sunday church services risks making President Obama seem positively Laodicean.”

The great English novelist Thomas Hardy wrote a novel called “A Laodicean” in 1881. It’s about an architect torn between convention and modernity.

By the way, Indian-Americans are anything but lukewarm about the spelling bee, as anyone who’s seen “Spellbound” can attest. Seven of the last 11 winners have family ties to the Subcontinent.

(Our spell-checker software marked “Laodicean” as incorrect in each of its uses in this post. Their suggested spelling was L-A-D-I-E-S. I guess we know what’s on its mind.)

Photo by AP.