Refudiate English

Refudiate. Gee last time I checked this wasn't a word, it was a typo. Today it's the Word of the Year. Now I like neologisms as much as the next person, but can the New Oxford American Dictionary really hold onto any shred of credibility when they make what should be a typo the word of the year? Initially I thought it all seemed to stem from one misspelled tweet back in July. But oh no. She keeps using it, over and over again. (I do like the title on that piece- Refudiate English, I'm going to pinch that) She speaks it, she tweets it. Arrrgh. It's like when George W Bush kept mispronouncing nuclear. It just won't stop. But I don't know what the hell the Obama wee wee'd up thing is either. At least that had been allowed to die a natural death. Refudiate is being resuscitated when it should be dead and buried.

The Washington Post bravely reminds us that Shakespeare famously made up lots of words. And he did. He's thought to have created thousands of new words. Somehow that seems ok, whereas this somehow, well, doesn't.

There is a surprising amount of stuff to be googled on what is not infact a word in the English language. And it gets weirder by the minute it seems. There are no plans to include refudiate in the New Oxford American Dictionary, or any of the other Oxford Dictionaries. So why make it word of the year? Is it really just a publicity ploy from the dictionary people? They pick what otherwise seems to be a slow news day and whammo- they're everywhere.

It's all like when Pauline Hanson famously asked "Please explain?" when faced with the word xenophobic. Should public ignorance be rewarded with political fame? No. I don't think so.

I personally prefer vuvuzela for word of the year. Actually, even nom nom is better than refudiate. I refudiate it. Absolutely.

Would Banjo have liked a good refudiation? We'll never know.