Posted on 11/18/2010 12:30:47 PM PST by WebFocus
If there is something we learned this year, it’s that anything Palin tweets or writes on Facebook becomes international news and the talk of the nation, especially when it comes to politics.
Two nights ago on his program, Lawrence O’Donnell decided to rant on New Oxford American Dictionary for their decision to include Sarah Palin’s word “refudiate” into the English language.
Palin’s typo in a tweet about the Ground Zero mosque was the talk on twitter. Palin called it “Shakespearean.” The result: she popularized the word and it is now part of the lexicon.
New Oxford wrote about their decision:
An unquestionable buzzmaker in 2010, the word refudiate instantly evokes the name of Sarah Palin, who tweeted her way into a flurry of media activity when she used the word in certain statements posted on Twitter. Critics pounced on Palin, lampooning what they saw as nonsensical vocabulary and speculating on whether she meant “refute” or “repudiate.”
From a strictly lexical interpretation of the different contexts in which Palin has used “refudiate,” we have concluded that neither “refute” nor “repudiate” seems consistently precise, and that “refudiate” more or less stands on its own, suggesting a general sense of “reject.”
Lawrence O’Donnell got wee-wee’d up with the decision, and lashed out against the dictionary for allowing Sarah Palin to ruin the English language, or something. He is also annoyed that for a woman, who he claims will not run for president, gets this much attention. Then why talk about her if she is so irrelevant?
“No doubt Sarah Palin and her supporters will take this honor and run with it; next they will be demanding that cartographers actually move Russia even closer to Sarah Palin house.”
At least she can speak using her own brain and doesn’t say “uh” every other word like the guy in the white house.
I hope she says “Strategery” now
“Lawrence O’Donnell: Sarah Palin is ruining the English language...”
But Zero getting a Nobel Prize doesn’t bother anyone...
Only the elite ruling class is allowed to make up words or to have speach affectations
and not be subject to ridicule.
I hereby refudiate Lawrence O’Donnell.
Whether you approve of her qualifications for the White House or not, you have to admire her ability to drive the left absolutely bats**t crazy.
Personally, I find the term “wee-wee’d up” as more of a blight on the English language than “refudiate”. It is right up there with “Boo-yah!”.
Yeah Larry, and telling stories about Navy corpse men does no damage to the English language....
Did he mind when Clintoon parsed the word ‘is’?
No, didn’t think so.
Oh no call the “Waa”mbulance
Included the word as part of my response to an email question from a very, very liberal client today. Made me feel warm all over.
I’m convinced MSNBC exists soley as means by which liberals infesting the MSM can appear balanced when criticising FNC - “purveyors of hatred and misinformation such as MSNBC & Fox”.
And "misunderestimated."
I’d rather see new words created that create redundancy than see liberals twist and contort the meaning of existing language to meet their own deceitful ends.
The last time I checked, “refudiate” was in fact considered poor usage in all 57 states, but it is allowed if you’re speaking Brazilian.
I nominate this as worse:
INHALATOR
——————————————————————————————OBAMA: Everybody knows that it makes no sense that you send a kid to the emergency room for a treatable illness like asthma, they end up taking up a hospital bed, it costs, when, if you, they just gave, you gave them treatment early and they got some treatment, and a, a breathalyzer, or inhalator, not a breathalyzer. (crowd laughing) I haven’t had much sleep in the last 48 hours.
Maybe he can axe Jesse Jackson what he thinks about it.
In order to refudiate Mr. O’Donnells expressed viewpoint, one need only refer to the Oxford American Dictionary discussion of the word:
From a strictly lexical interpretation of the different contexts in which Palin has used “refudiate,” we have concluded that neither “refute” nor “repudiate” seems consistently precise, and that “refudiate” more or less stands on its own, suggesting a general sense of “reject.”
Although Palin is likely to be forever branded with the coinage of “refudiate,” she is by no means the first person to speak or write it—just as Warren G. Harding was not the first to use the word normalcy when he ran his 1920 presidential campaign under the slogan “A return to normalcy.” But Harding was a political celebrity, as Palin is now, and his critics spared no ridicule for his supposedly ignorant mangling of the correct word “normality.”
____________________________________________________________
Now, why is it that only great conservatives get hit by the media for extraordinary use of the English language? Perfect lexical usage that is uncommon? Hmmmm?
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