Look It Up

The Oxford Dictionary people have made Sarah Palin’s neologism*, “refudiate”, the Word of the Year. By my count, that’s one more than the current President has accomplished. But Barry is still up 1–0 in Peace Prizes.

The Oxford experts hold that Palin means what she says:

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.'

She wasn’t showing stupidity, she was breaking the shackles of existing language, to convey a meaning that no other word could sufficiently carry.

*But for those who just can’t accept that Palin can do anything right:

While Palin may have made “refudiate” famous, she is by no means the first person to coin the term. According to the New Oxford American Dictionary the Fort Worth Gazette was the first to publish the word in 1891.

She didn’t actually invent the word. So by lefty logic, she shouldn’t get credit for it becoming the Word of the Year. Kind of like how all American wealth is owed to slaves. Or something. I guess I need Sarah to invent a word that means “lefty logic”…

H/T: Neo-neocon