Posted on 07/19/2010 10:42:18 PM PDT by American Dream 246
Yesterday, Sarah Palin offered her opinion on a proposal to build a mosque in the vicinity of the September 11th site. Her words:
“Ground Zero Mosque supporters: doesn’t it stab you in the heart, as it does ours throughout the heartland? Peaceful Muslims, pls refudiate.”
This tweet is a pundit’s dream, a perfect storm for mud-slinging, flak, fuss, hurrahs, miffs, polemics, rows, rumpuses, and maybe some discussion.
Dictionary.com only cares about one word in the former Alaska governor’s message. Refudiate. Go ahead and look up refudiate on our site. Or any dictionary Web site for that matter. Nada, zilch.
There are a few ways to look at Sarah Palin’s use of “refudiate.” It’s clear that refute and repudiate are lurking in the background somewhere. One view is that it’s a non-word and sets a bad example for students of the English language. Palin’s response:
“‘Refudiate,’ ‘misunderestimate,’ ‘wee-wee’d up.’ English is a living language. Shakespeare liked to coin new words too. Got to celebrate it!”
“Misunderestimate” is a famous coinage by former President George W. Bush. “Wee-wee’d up” is a lexical creation by President Barack Obama. (Check out our previous take on a flub of Obama’s.)
Say what you will about her invocation of Shakespeare, but Palin raises a classic debate among linguists and lexicographers (people who create dictionaries). Dictionaries have always faced the dilemma whether to be prescriptive or descriptive. Is it the job of a dictionary to direct how words should be used, spelled, or pronounced, or should a dictionary simply document the current usage of the language?
When Palin, Bush and Obama coined their respective terms, they added neologisms (new words) to the messy, changing phenomenon we agree to call English. Whether a word transforms from a novelty into a standard part of our lexicon is a mysterious joy beyond the power of any politician, editor or individual to predict.
Commenter ”Pete Buick” deserves mention for pointing out a wonderful related term: malapropism, “an act or habit of misusing words ridiculously, esp. by the confusion of words that are similar in sound.” It’s up to you if you consider “refudiate” a malapropism or a simple corrigendum.
Weigh in: Do you think refudiate will end up in the dictionary? What do you make of Palin’s defense?
| v. t. | 1. | To fluster. |
I like the word, and have penciled it into my dictionary :D
A misspelling of gerbils? < /sarc>
John Sladek - 2005 - Fiction - 144 pages
Yet, these same reporters never mentioned that barry zero said he campaigned in 'all 57 states' but may have missed one or two.
eff the SRM.
What ticks me off is the time I accidently used the term, “homocide”. I meant “homicide” of course. But killing of homosexuals is now a word one can easily stumble into thanks to a leftist-run spellcheck system.
What loon was given the power to coin the word, “homocide” [not to be confused with homIcide] ? It’s absurd. It’s easy if the loony left backs you.
Please note post 68. Leftists invent truly lunatic words all the time.
I remember that. The guy that called you out got chastized for making a joke on a very serious thread.
I just thought it was funny. :)
People don't give a fig about some minor tweet-slip. That's nothing. It's easy to poke the other side, as FReepers are pointing out. A comic keeps a serious face when he's being roasted. That drags the joke out.
I didn’t.
No but that's probably because Sarah corrected herself, made a follow up joke about it and had already SPOKEN the word on Hannity a couple days earlier.
are we sure she didn’t say “repudiate” and simply enunciated badly?
nevermind..i just read it was a tweet....so misspelling prob
Thanks. I was unaware of that.
I’m always mistyping things because I have some hand paralysis, and I keep thinking people must think I don’t know how to spell. I go over each message at least twice but I usually miss something.
If I’d known the guy who died personally, I wouldn’t have thought it was funny either. But I didn’t. I thought the whole subthread was comical.
I know what you mean. My hands are fine and I’m still always mistyping things too ;)
She misspoke...
She should have simply said: “I misspoke”, and moved on.
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I concur.
“its like colour and color. The correct spelling is colour, but Americans have changed it to color”
George Washington defeated the U in a decisive victory during the battle of Yorktown. The U’s surrender even lead to a negotiation for an end to the conflict.
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