Sarah Palin may not have succeeded in her quest to become the Vice President of the United States, but her time in the spotlight is not really over. While she did not` seek to be re-elected as the governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin has been busy with a host of other activities. Her own TV show, Sarah Palin’s Alaska, is attracting some attention, together with her Twitter account: @SarahPalinUSA.
Some time this year, Twitterverse was abuzz with Sarah Palin’s tweet using a one-of-a-kind word. Can you spot it below?
“Ground Zero Mosque supporters: doesn’t it stab you in the heart, as it does ours throughout the heartland? Peaceful Muslims, pls refudiate.”
To her credit, I actually got what she meant after reading that tweet. Of course, just because I understood what she meant doesn’t mean that the word is real. Indeed, at that time, the word was not officially recognized. This is the perfect example of how dynamic language is. Several months after people were enjoying laughing at Sarah Palin’s boo-boo, the tides have turned – big time.
I don’t know if you have heard about it, but refudiate has made it to the the “real world.” The New Oxford American Dictionary editors have made it official: refudiate is a word. It doesn’t stop there, though. More than being a word, it is the word of the year.
The official definition according to the NOAD:
refudiate verb used loosely to mean “reject”: she called on them to refudiate the proposal to build a mosque. [origin — blend of refute and repudiate]
So who is laughing now?
To be honest, I am not averse to using this word – as bizarre as it may seem – in the future. Who knows? You just might see it in the Grammar Guide one of these days.
What do you think about this year’s word?
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