Here’s some news you can’t refudiate.  No matter how much you like or dislike Sarah Palin, there’s no way around the fact that whatever she says immediately becomes very talked about.  Palin’s grammatical missteps are well known, as are her various quirks and oddities as a public speaker, but she’s incredibly influential.  That’s why refudiate was the most-searched-for word on Merriam-Webster’s website, and why refudiate has become the New Oxford American Dictionary’s word of the year for 2010.

It’s not just America that’s embraced refudiate fever.  According to the Global Language Monitor, Sarah Palin’s portmanteau of refuse and repudiate was fourth on their list of 2010 words (their top word was spillcam).  Other words topping the word of the year list are Gleek (referring to Glee fans), retweet, and top kill (another term used in the Gulf Oil Spill disaster).

So basically the two most influential forces of 2010 were Sarah Palin and an oil leak.  Good to know that modern authors have completely given up on coining new words.

Tags: Sarah Palin, Twitter, refudiate, refudiate is 2010 word of the year, refudiate word of the year, New Oxford American Dictionary, Global Language Monitor, word of the year lists, refudiate tops word of the year lists, new words, invented words, portmanteaus

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