Word of the Year Candidates

You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Martha Barnette.

And I’m Grant Barrett.

I can’t believe it’s already time to start talking about words of the year. Amazing. But what a great time we’ve had. Just let me say right now, so far, the year’s not quite done yet.

Yeah. We’ve had a fantastic time. News has been wonderful for language. Lots of cool stuff coming our way. I’m making notes right and left, right?

Yeah, we’re collecting new words. And I’ve got a few for you.

What do you have?

These are going to be on my nomination list for the words of the year when we do the vote in January for the American Dialect Society. Tell me what you think about these.

All right. First of all, refudiate.

Oh, has to be in there. It’s a wonderful Sarah Palinism. It’s a mix of refute and repudiate. As soon as she uttered that word, it exploded in the search engines. It exploded in the dictionary searches. It exploded everywhere. This word is here to stay, whether you like it or not, right?

Refudiate.

Yeah. And you think people are going to be using it the same way as nuclear?

No, they’re going to use it like embiggen or they’re going to use it like the Internet. They’re going to take it and first use it ironically and truthiness. They’re going to first use it a little ironically and in a knowing sense. And then I think in time it’s just going to become normal.

I think it is, too. It’s really interesting, right?

Love it. And, of course, if we’re talking about Sarah Palin, we have to mention Mama Grizzly.

Oh, yeah. Right? These are these tough women who look after their cubs, right?

Right. They’re successful in the professional world, right?

Right. Love it. So those two, Refugee 8 and Mama Grizzly, got a couple more for you.

Okay. We cannot have the word of the year vote this year without the word Vuvuzela.

Vuvuzela, love it. Those buzzing horns from the World Cup.

Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. Have you seen that sonata for Vuvuzela on?

Oh, fantastic. Fantastic. It’s just one whole note, same note. I watched most of the World Cup, the big games anyway, the ones that were broadcast here, and I just, that sound is still in my head. It’s like the cicadas every 13 years. It’s the same sound.

Love it. Vuvuzela.

And then the last one, this has only come about towards the end of this year. Actor Randy Quaid and his wife fled the country and then told the police and the press that they fled the United States because they were worried about starwhackers. W-H-A-C-K-E-R-S. People who kill stars. And on their list of friends and acquaintances who’ve died recently are Heath Ledger, Christopher Penn, David Carradine, Natasha Richardson. And they felt like they were next. So they left the country to flee these Star Whackers. So Star Whacker is on my list of nominations for words of the year.

Oh, my gosh. You don’t think they’re radio Star Whackers, do you?

Not at our level, Martha. If we’re lucky, somebody will beat us about the head and neck with a tote bag.

If you have Words of the Year nominations, send them along. I’d love to have them and make them a part of my grand list. Send them to words@waywordradio.org or give us a call on the telephone, 877-929-9673.