A Perfectly Cromulent Word
(from YakBoy.Net)
Juan Cole is a Professor of History at the University of Michigan specializing in the modern history of the Middle East and South Asia. He is fluent in Arabic and Persian and has written a number of peer-reviewed papers on the modern Middle East. Unquestionably an expert.
It takes him 1400 words to correct everything that is wrong in a single 140 character tweet from Sara Palin. That is why Palin is so dangerous. Stupidity THAT concentrated has GOT to be unstable in some way.
Among the more obvious things wrong with the tweet in question is the word "refudiate", seemingly some sort of mashup between "repudiate" and "refute".
I have no doubt that this was a simple mistake. Twitter, by its nature, does not lend itself to thoughtful and considered composition. Instead of just laughing it off as a mistake, though, Sara Palin has doubled down, insisting that " English is a living language. Shakespeare liked to coin new words too. Got to celebrate it!".
There are neither enough faces nor enough palms to cover even the thought of Sara Palin comparing what was essentially a typo to Shakespeare's neologisms and poetic devices. Additionally, in spite of the fact that in the context of the original sentence "repudiate" would have seemed like the correct word choice, when she deleted the tweet and resent it she changed it not to repudiate, but to refute. Repudiate (to cast off or disown) and refute (to prove to be false or erroneous, as an opinion or charge or to prove (a person) to be in error) are both useful words but they are by no means interchangeable.
Admittedly, Shakespeare frequently used existing words in new ways (using nouns as verbs - "Grace me no grace, nor uncle me no uncle" from Richard II for example) but he was using words he understood in ways that conveyed meaning. Palin is mis-using existing words in ways that demonstrate that she doesn't really understand what the words she is using mean.
Addendum -Skitt's Law states that "any post correcting an error in another post will contain at least one error itself" so I have absolutely no doubt that there is at least one glaring error in either spelling or grammar somewhere in this post.
Juan Cole is a Professor of History at the University of Michigan specializing in the modern history of the Middle East and South Asia. He is fluent in Arabic and Persian and has written a number of peer-reviewed papers on the modern Middle East. Unquestionably an expert.
It takes him 1400 words to correct everything that is wrong in a single 140 character tweet from Sara Palin. That is why Palin is so dangerous. Stupidity THAT concentrated has GOT to be unstable in some way.
Among the more obvious things wrong with the tweet in question is the word "refudiate", seemingly some sort of mashup between "repudiate" and "refute".
I have no doubt that this was a simple mistake. Twitter, by its nature, does not lend itself to thoughtful and considered composition. Instead of just laughing it off as a mistake, though, Sara Palin has doubled down, insisting that " English is a living language. Shakespeare liked to coin new words too. Got to celebrate it!".
There are neither enough faces nor enough palms to cover even the thought of Sara Palin comparing what was essentially a typo to Shakespeare's neologisms and poetic devices. Additionally, in spite of the fact that in the context of the original sentence "repudiate" would have seemed like the correct word choice, when she deleted the tweet and resent it she changed it not to repudiate, but to refute. Repudiate (to cast off or disown) and refute (to prove to be false or erroneous, as an opinion or charge or to prove (a person) to be in error) are both useful words but they are by no means interchangeable.
Admittedly, Shakespeare frequently used existing words in new ways (using nouns as verbs - "Grace me no grace, nor uncle me no uncle" from Richard II for example) but he was using words he understood in ways that conveyed meaning. Palin is mis-using existing words in ways that demonstrate that she doesn't really understand what the words she is using mean.
Addendum -Skitt's Law states that "any post correcting an error in another post will contain at least one error itself" so I have absolutely no doubt that there is at least one glaring error in either spelling or grammar somewhere in this post.