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?
“Wee-wee’d up” is a lexical creation by President Barack Obama.”
And it can only be said while wearing neatly pressed Mommy jeans.
I write a lot of Business requirements, functional requirements and even teaching documents. There is a word I use all the time that does not exist and I’ve even “added” it to my dictionary in Word. Like Shakespeare, I too invented a word. It comes from the word incentive. The word is incent.
The spell checker here hates it too. :)
FWIW, sometimes I say subscription when I mean prescription. So sue me. ;)
The article is dripping with nitpickyeousness.
refudidate is not a word that Palin made up. I’ve seen it used elsewhere. Its common usage
Sarah Palin: the first person ever to enter typographical error (colloquial: “typo”) since the beginning of the Internets.
Although it is not quite commonly accepted, I have heard refudiate used a number of times before this controversy started.
Sarah certainly did not make it up. I figured it for one of those regional words that pop up now and then.
She misspoke...
She should have simply said: “I misspoke”, and moved on.
Notice they’re comparing her to Obama and Bush. Both US Presidents. Funny that
Who cares what people put on Twitter? It’s the embodiment of language destruction.
Well, if it isn’t just a simple type, then it could be a construct like “proffer” (Legal term combining “proof” and “offer” = “offer of proof.”)
A quick google shows people using the word “refudiate” as far back as 2005...whatta non-story...magritte
its like colour and color. The correct spelling is colour, but Americans have changed it to color
>>It’s the embodiment of language destruction.<<
w8 — R U sayng twtr isnt grmtcally crect?
no it’s not. try googling it.
>>The correct spelling is colour, but Americans have changed it to color<<
Just like we changed “bonnet” to “hood”, “lorry” to “truck”, “slip road” to “on-ramp”, “lift” to “elevator” and “futball” to “boring”...?
Here come de Palin haters....
Who cares? Grammar police care. We got some resident Grammar police on Freerepublic. If I use the word ppl. I get half a dozen ppl all over me.
My favorite if the word “frutile.”
It was coined (as best I can gather) by the writers of The Dick Van Dyke Show back in the early 60s.
The word combines “fruitless” and “futile.”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.