MISQUAH — The six manila folders containing Doris Knutson’s Friday spelling lists from 1974 through 2011 have been copied.

The originals went back into the district file drawer Monday.

The copies have become a problem for everybody else.

The first Doris Knutson Spelldown will be held the last Friday of September in the Lakeside gym for students in grades three through six. The words come from Knutson’s own lists, which means the committee has spent two weeks deciding whether a word she once gave a fifth-grader in 1988 remains an appropriate word to give a fifth-grader in 2026.

“Onomatopoeia” survived.

So did “millinery.”

“Quarantine” has been moved to a reserve list on the grounds that the town has had enough of the word in recent memory.

Retired band director Phil Brekke will pronounce. He has been practicing alone in the music room and has already reminded organizers that a pronouncer says the word twice, uses it in a sentence and then stops talking.

“The third part,” Brekke said, “is where people get into trouble.”

Dale Brandt said the district chose to preserve the original folders rather than work from them directly because several contain Knutson’s notes in green ink, including check marks beside words she apparently liked and question marks beside words nobody has yet been able to interpret.

Denny Dahl is handling the gym setup. He expects about forty contestants if registration follows the interest shown at the fair booth and school open house.

The event will run in rounds by grade before a final mixed-grade round. Students may ask for a definition and a sentence. No electronic devices will be permitted at the table. Certificates will be in green ink, and the winner will receive the restored eraser privilege described in the original announcement.

Registration opens Wednesday through the school office and closes Sept. 18 so organizers can build the brackets and print names correctly.

Brekke says he does not care who wins.

He cares deeply about the pause after the word.