Your daily English lesson

The Oxford University Press has announced its Word of the Year for 2010 (Hat Tip: Gary P). And the winner is:

Refudiate

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]

Now, does that mean that “refudiate” has been added to the New Oxford American Dictionary? No it does not. Currently, there are no definite plans to include “refudiate” in the NOAD, the OED, or any of our other dictionaries. If you are interested in the most recent additions to the NOAD, you can read about them here. We have many dictionary programs, and each team of lexicographers carefully tracks the evolution of the English language. If a word becomes common enough (as did last year’s WOTY, unfriend), they will consider adding it to one (or several) of the dictionaries we publish. As for “refudiate,” well, I’m not yet sure that it will be includiated.

But before you dismiss the possibility that 'refudiate' will be included, please consider that it was one of ten finalists for the honor. The other finalists included such popular staples as 'double-dip,' 'retweet,' 'Tea Party,' and 'vuvuzela.' So perhaps 'refudiate' will make it into an Oxford dictionary after all.

What does this have to do with Israel? Not much, except that Sarah Palin is a big supporter and the time has come to refudiate the Obama administration's policies on Israel.

Read the whole thing.

Labels: Oxford University Press, refudiate, retweet, Sarah Palin, Word of the Year

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:14 PM