In defense of Sarah Palin's English (A CNN liberal likes the new word -- 'Refudiate')

CNN ^ | 07/22/2010 | Roy Peter Clark

[SeekAndFind]

I don't care much for Sarah Palin's politics, but I do like her word "refudiate." As I just typed the word, a squiggly red line appeared under it with a suggestion that I change the word to repudiate. Well, for the record, I repudiate that suggestion and refudiate it.

People who don't like political figures often make fun of their language.

H.L. Mencken said of a Warren G. Harding speech: "It is rumble and bumble. It is flap and doodle. It is balder and dash." Jimmy Carter's enemies portrayed him as a hick from the sticks, not just because of his brother Billy, but for his Southern speech, including his pronunciation of nuclear.

It doesn't seem to matter whether you have a reputation as brainy and articulate.

John Kennedy's Harvard dialect created a cottage industry of comic impressionists. At the other end of the spectrum was George W. Bush, whose Bushisms were legion. Opponents of President Obama attack his use of language as elitist, professorial or passionless.

In other words, Palin stands in good company. And I stand with her.

What was her crime? She made up a new word --unintentionally perhaps, but it doesn't matter.

I once referred to a highly paid athlete as a godzillionaire. I meant to say gazillionaire, but when I caught myself, I realized my "mistake" was better: the athlete's wealth was ginormous, as big and monstrous as the Japanese icon Godzilla.

The words web and log gave birth to blog. The merger of gigantic and enormous gave us the increasingly popular ginormous, which I thought was a kid's malapropism until I read it on a billboard.

[Cloverfarm]

” ... learn to harmonate as one American peoples.”

Irrefudiatable logic. Well said, sir. Very well said.

[ZirconEncrustedTweezers]

This just made me think of Marion Barry’s comment about the contagious people of Washington D.C. standing firm in the face of diversity...

[ZirconEncrustedTweezers]

He ... "hisses" when he speaks, enunciating every single "s" in every word that contains it or even sounds like it. I'm like, "What am I listening to? A snake?"

Well.... yes.

[billhilly]

“What’s the difference between refudiate and refute?’

Repute. Some people refudiate houses of ill repute.

[Carley]

But what does Jeffrey Toobin think?

[SuziQ]

There's a chance that Palin, who compared her language creativity to Shakespeare's, may in fact be more in tune with Mrs. Malaprop,

Nope, Mrs. Malaprop used words that had absolutely NO connection to the word she intended to use.

[conservativeharleyguy]

My boss does them all the time. In a teleconference the other day, he said: "I don't want to have to lay that whole ball of worms on the table". I kinda hurt myself trying not to burst out laughing.

I nearly got into a fistfight decades ago at a laundrymat in Leesville, LA when I stopped in mid-stride and asked some young "brother" to repeat a statement I overheard him make about a "stipulization" while he was trying to impress a girl.

He took umbrage because I couldn't stop laughing when he said "yeah cracker, it mean... like - 'to stipulize'", and I told him "OK, see here's the problem... 'stipulize' is not a word, I'm a man, not an appetizer, and YOU are an idiot". My poor wife had to drag me out of there.

Anyway, I probably should have minded my own business, but seriously... "Stipulize"??? "Stipulization"??? Come on... Who could resist?

[JimRed]

What’s the difference between refudiate and refute?

The difference is nearly irrefudiable!

[TomGuy]

Sorry, CNN, but 'refudiate' predates Palin. A simple web search reveals several examples, including those I found:

Sarah Palin ...What’s the big problem with refudiate? From Dictionary.com

Tuesday, July 20, 2010 6:32:47 AM · 61 of 88
TomGuy to American Dream 246
Refudiate has been used several times by others in previous years. It was used mostly in blog posts, but writers were using the word.

A couple of more professional examples from 2004 and 2005 are:

[National Park Service] Research Report GRTE-N-1

The Elk of Grand Teton and Southern Yellowstone National Parks National Park Service Arrowhead

THE ELK POPULATION

[paragraph 3] These strongly refudiate opinions that elk and other wildlife were originally scarce in the mountains.

Last Modified: Tues, Jan 20 2004 10:00:00 pm PDT
http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/fauna8/fauna2.htm


===

WOM* Interviews Dr. Marlene Schwartz of the Rudd Institute at Yale University

WOM: Has the Rudd Institute documented bias against obesity by the medical community in general (in addition to those specializing in the treatment of obesity)? What has the Rudd Institute found to substantiate or refudiate this?

*War on Fat website, April, 2005.

==

Source search link to additional uses in blogs: alltheweb.com

[Tenniel2]

... and it embiggens even the smallest speaker.

[ZirconEncrustedTweezers]

I ran into a similar situation with someone who kept talking about how something would “evolutionate.” It was all I could do not to slap him upside the head and yell, “It’s EVOLVE, you moron!”

[SuziQ]

I have seen no independently verifiable evidence that proves Barak Obama is more intelligent than either Bush or Palin....

Neither have I, though the MSM tells us everyday that he is, and they aren't. ;o)

[SuziQ]

So refudiate means to reject because you’ve shown them to be wrong!

Sounds like a perfect word, to me!

[Oztrich Boy]

To repudiate means to reject.

To refute means to prove wrong.

So what's wrong with using "rejute"?

[allmendream]

Because it doesn't sound as good?

The woman has an ear for a turn of a phrase and I am willing to accept her contribution to the hipcrimevocab*.

*Brunner ref

[nikos1121]

Then what would rebootdiate mean?

[nikos1121]

Then what would rebootdiate mean?

[JimRed]

Then what would rebootdiate mean?

Start over expressing doubts?