Repudiate

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Dr. Goodword
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Repudiate

Postby Dr. Goodword » Sun Mar 14, 2021 8:03 pm

• repudiate •


Pronunciation: ri-pyu-di-ayt • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Verb

Meaning: 1. Contradict, deny the truth of the matter, as 'to repudiate allegations'. 2. Refuse to accept or recognize, as 'to repudiate a political party'. 3. To end, refuse to have any dealings with, as 'to repudiate a friendship'.

Notes: This verb has a full panoply of lexical relatives, including four adjectives: repudiative, repudiatory, the rare repudiant, and the passive repudiable, another verb that repudiates the suffix -ate before -able.

In Play: The first sense of today's Good Word may be heard in utterances like this: "Lars Gable repudiated vehemently the assertion that he was having an affair with Mable." The second sense is illustrated here: "Lars repudiated the offer a job at Mable's concrete manufacturing plant even though it came with a material raise in salary."

Word History: Today's Good Word comes from Latin repudiatus "cast off", the past participle of repudiare "to cast off, divorce, reject", based on repudium "divorce, rejection". This word is made up of re- "back, away" + podium, which is probably related to pe(d)s "foot". If so, it may have meant earlier "to kick away". There is also the chance it came from pudere "to cause shame to". If so, some have related it to PIE (s)peud- "to press, urge, hurry"; however, this leads to semantic complications. If it is a compounding form of pe(d)s, we know that comes from PIE ped-/pod- "foot", source also of English foot, German Fuss, Greek podos that we see in podiatrist and tripod. We see it in Russian pod "under" and padat' "to fall", and Bulgarian and Serbian pod "under; floor". (Thanks to Rob Towart for recommending yet another in a long series of compelling Good Words.)
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Slava
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Re: Repudiate

Postby Slava » Thu Mar 14, 2024 8:04 am

Some years ago a certain politician in the US caught a great deal of flak over her use of the word 'refudiate'. I say, while it hasn't become accepted in general usage, it's still and all a great portmanteau that carries the meanings of both its parts. The Oxford American dictionary even declared it the word of the year once upon a time.

Dictionary.com has this to say:
Refudiate raises the question about what is really a word. The answer for new coinages is usually thrashed out gradually between the experts who record, guard, or teach the language and the rest of us who regularly use the language every day. Refudiate, however, clearly appears to be an accidental blend of refute and repudiate, rather than a deliberate coinage that fills a perceived need for a new word. Examples of this error go back to the late 19th century and recur from time to time. When, in 2010, controversial political figure Sarah Palin used the word in several interviews and on the social media service and website Twitter, it caused an uproar, and the online discussion about the word's validity went viral, but then quickly died down. The word remains generally unacceptable in formal writing.
However, I can't find anything that predates the 2010 usage.
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