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Grant Barrett’s Annual Words Of The Year

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

By Alison St John, Pat Finn

Grant Barrett, co-host of the public radio show

Above: Grant Barrett, co-host of the public radio show "A Way With Words," leafs through a dictionary in this undated photo.

Aired 1/3/12 on KPBS Midday Edition

GUEST

Grant Barrett, co-host of public radio's A Way With Words, vice president, American Dialect Society.

Transcript

Joanne Faryon speaks with Grant Barrett about the words of 2011.

Evening Edition airs weekdays at 5 PM and 6:30 PM on KPBS TV.

Grant Barrett's annual words of the year column in the New York Times features words and terms that floated into our consciousness in 2011. A few of the "new" words are:

Arab Spring

99 percenters

Deather

Kardash

9-9-9 Plan

Bath Salts

Human Megaphone

Twinkling

Planking

Winning

We'll find out what they mean, and whether they'll last or be forgotten. And we also discuss the words that have special meaning to San Diego.

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