Last night’s winning word of the spelling bee had some of us scratching our heads: Koinonia, pronounced “Koyno-knee-a.”
Three local students were the top finishers in the competition, but local residents pointed out another relation to North Texas -- many local churches use the word in their names.
A NBC 5 reporter who was on a story at Koinonia Christian Church in Arlington recalled a pastor talking about how to pronounce the name.
There's also Koinonia Missionary Baptist Church in Dallas, Koinonia Full Gospel Church in Dallas and Christ Cornerstone Koinonia Church in McKinney.
Why?
The word has Greek roots and it means:
1 : the Christian fellowship or body of believers
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2 : intimate spiritual communion and participative sharing in a common religious commitment and spiritual community
According to Christian Today, Christians have adopted the word koinonia from the Greek New Testament, where it is translated as fellowship, communion, or partnership.
Winner Karthik Nemmani of McKinney says he knew how to spell the word as soon as the official pronouncer read it.
"I had confidence that it was possible but I didn't really think that it would realistically happen," he said Friday on NBC's "Today" show
