"I like that dude," said Erin Howard, speller 36, when she heard her sentence.
"Pedro got so sick of correcting people who described his Halloween costume as merely 'Roman army soldier' that he carried around a sign that said 'I'm a foederatus, you ignoramus!'
A foederatus is an auxiliary soldier serving the Roman Empire.
The Alabama sixth grader remains in the Bee. Last year, she tied for 22nd.