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: doesnt it stab you in the heart, as it does ours throughout the heartland? Peaceful Muslims, pls refudiate.
This tweet is a pundits 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 governors 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 Palins use of refudiate. Its clear that refute and repudiate are lurking in the background somewhere. One view is that its a non-word and sets a bad example for students of the English language. Palins response:
Refudiate, misunderestimate, wee-weed 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-weed up is a lexical creation by President Barack Obama. (Check out our previous take on a flub of Obamas.)
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. Its 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 Palins defense?
“She should have simply said: I misspoke, and moved on.”
Can’t you see she’s a genius? Her reply was intricately constructed to cause every media outlet in the world to include her in the grouping of US presidents.
While they go on about the comparison to Shakespeare, they don’t even mention the obvious inclusion she made with herself and US presidents. It is because they already see her in that group. Everyone does. That is how much capital she has. And see how it shows!
The “living language” thing is a crack about the leftist view of the Constitution as a ‘living document’. When the media make fun of it, a viewer can’t help but see them as making fun of themselves.
The mention of wee-wee’d up along side another president’s new word (and hers) that is obviously, infinitely more mature makes Obama look like a dope, and by extension the media who supports him while attacking her.
She even gets to be mentioned as similar to a *Founder* of America who wrote elegant missives about the beauty and necessity of inventing new words.
None of this is by accident. The woman is simply a genius. Take an honest look at her place in the world and just try to figure how anybody could get there without being one.
Portmanteau word: Lewis Carroll, look it up.
Perhaps; but if she could speak it in Austrian in all 57 states, now THAT would be something!
“frutile”—A new trend in DC decor?
That’s where I keep mine.
You’ve heard repudiate. Not refudiate.
>>The professor stypified stipulated that there was no such word.<<
The proper way to express that is:
“The professor stypifulated that there was no such word.”
*sigh* it is so difficult being the Serpico of the Grammar Police...
What is there in a word? It is the meaning and feelings that matter. Social networking is changing the course of communication.
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