Palin Word of Summer ‘Refudiate’ Garners Award

By: Bill Waters
09/07/2010 10:43 PM ET

Palin Word of Summer named refudiate by Merriam-Webster. Sarah Palin gets her ‘refudiate’ word entered in 2010′s Word of the Summer. It was named by Merriam-Webster because it was the most popular word searched by the company’s online dictionary.

It’s an interesting word by Palin, and it became the most-searched term by users of the publisher’s dictionary. They never found it, and “refudiate” isn’t in the dictionary. In fact, it’s not expected to be added anytime soon.

The closest word found is “refute” and “repudiate” but no one understood which one Palin was referring to. Refute means to prove something wrong or deny its truth or accuracy. Repudiate means to refuse any connection with something or reject it as untrue or unjust.

Sarah Palin used it twice in July on a news program and in a Twitter message. She came under hard criticism for her grammar, but she laughed it off and noted that Shakespeare also coined new words. “I think people immediately knew what she was trying to say because the words ‘refute’ and ‘repudiate’ were also being looked up very, very frequently,” John Morse, Merriam-Webster’s president and publisher, said in a statement.