On Sarah Palin’s latest: I think ‘refudiate‘ is a perfectly good portmanteau word, like ‘webinar’ or ‘spork’. Palin wasn’t even the first to use it. But it won’t help the perception that she’s a Bush-style mangler of words, and I think comparing herself to Shakespeare was probably a bit over the top.
While I’m on the topic: In American pollstering: Palin’s favourables are now at 76% among people who still choose to identify as Republicans — higher than any other likely candidate. All sensible conservatives were driven out of the party long ago, or fled in horror.
20 July 2010 at 1:40 am
It is a fine portmanteau. The problem is I'm sure she didn't know it was a portmanteau. She probably thought she was saying "refute".
20 July 2010 at 2:08 am
In which case we probably ought to call it a 'malapropism'.
20 July 2010 at 3:53 pm
After she was corrected, she didn't seem to have known what "refute" means either…