Sarah Palin entered the fray over plans to build an Islamic community center and mosque two blocks from Ground Zero in a series of tweets on Sunday asking “peaceful” New Yorkers and “peace-seeking” Muslims to oppose the plans.
But it was the former Alaska governor’s use of “refudiate” (hint: not a word) that’s drawing attention today. Palin used it in an initial tweet asking Muslims to “pls refudiate” the building of the mosque.
The tweet was deleted and Palin re-tweeted two comments using words found in the dictionary, including “reject” and “refute.”
Palin then used her Twitter feed to align herself with former President George W. Bush, President Barack Obama and—yes—William Shakespeare.
“‘Refudiate,’ ‘misunderestimate,’ ‘wee-wee’d up.’ English is a living language. Shakespeare liked to coin new words too. Got to celebrate it!”
“Misunderestimate” was a non-word famously coined by Bush who used the term on several occasions, while Obama used “wee-wee’d up” last August. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs later defined it thusly: “I think ‘wee-wee’d up’ is when people get nervous for no particular reason,” he said.
The tweet was not the first time Palin has used the term. She also used it recently in an appearance on Fox’s “The Sean Hannity Show.” And considering her defense of refudiate—it probably won’t be the last.
