Spelling bee words

When the Scripps National Spelling Bee was held last week, I was impressed by the difficulty of the words selected for the competition.  Granted, this was the championship round, but still...

As reported in a live blog in the Washington Post, these were some of the words:

ajimez
luteovirescent
admittatur
guetapens
ericeticolous
porwigle
sylloge
tendenz
podilegous

Out of curiosity, I looked up the winning words from previous competitions.  From the 1980s and 90s:

antipyretic
xanthosis
sarcophagus
psoriasis
Purim
luge
milieu
staphylococci

From the 1960s and 70s

sycophant
eczema
Chihuahua
abalone
croissant
vouchsafe
narcolepsy

And finally, from the 1920s and 1930s:

gladiolus
cerise
albumen
fracas
knack
torsion
intelligible
sanitarium

It's apparent that ever-more obscure and difficult words are becoming necessary to determine the champion.