Refudiate This!

I learned a new word yesterday: refudiate.

It was invented by Sarah Palin, the Bard of Wasilla, who joins William Shakespeare, Stephen Colbert, and Twitter in adding to our modern lexicon.

Based upon Ms. Palin’s single usage of the term (in a Twitter tweet, which was later deleted — why?), “Ground Zero Mosque supporters: doesn’t it stab you in the heart, as it does ours throughout the heartland? Peaceful Muslims, pls refudiate,” it seems to be a sort-of amalgamation of the words repudiate and refute — or Ms. Palin meant to use either refute or repudiate and got them confused, or made a typo (though the F key is nowhere near the P key on a standard QWERTY keyboard), or meant both but was limited to 140 characters.

Only the Bard of Wasilla knows for sure…

So, let’s work this — ’cause I think it’s fun.

re·pu·di·ate [ri-pyoo-dee-eyt] verb [ trans. ] 1. refuse to accept or be associated with.  2. deny the truth or validity of 3. chiefly Law refuse to fulfill or discharge (an agreement, obligation, or debt)

re·fute [ri-fyoot] verb [ trans. ] 1. prove (a statement or theory) to be wrong or false; disprove  2. prove that (someone) is wrong. 3. deny or contradict (a statement or accusation).

re·fu·di·ate [ri-fyoo-dee-eyt] verb [ trans. ] 1. disprove and disassociate from a statement.  2. prove someone or something wrong via denial of irrefutable facts. 3. to delete an embarrassing tweet before someone grabs a screenie of it and makes it go viral on the Internet.

Photo: Sarah Palin speaking at a rally in Elon, NC during the 2008 Presidential Campaign, by Therealbs2002