By Jennifer Glickel
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — Sarah Palin, a literary great once compared (by herself) to Shakespeare, made the previously nonexistent word 'refudiate' so widely known after using it in reference to the Ground Zero Mosque that the New American Oxford Dictionary has named it the 2010 Word of the Year.
The former Alaska governor used the word in a July tweet to call on "peaceful Muslims" to "refudiate" the proposed mosque near Ground Zero. When critics jumped on Palin for seemingly combining the words 'repudiate' and 'refute,' she quickly deleted it and posted a new tweet correcting her error by using the word 'refute.'
"From a strictly lexical interpretation of the different contexts in which Palin has used 'refudiate,' we have concluded that neither 'refute' nor 'repudiate' seems consistently precise, and that 'refudiate' more or less stands on its own, suggesting a general sense of 'reject'," the New Oxford American Dictionary said in a press release on Monday.
After the Twitterverse continued to erupt over Palin's tweet, she compared herself to Shakespeare, noting that he, like Palin, created words.
"'Refudiate,' 'misunderestimate,' 'wee-wee'd up.' English is a living language. Shakespeare liked to coin new words too. Got to celebrate it!" the former vice-presidential nominee wrote.
Public figures including Mayor Michael Bloomberg criticized Palin's comments, saying, that the mosque is "a great message for the world that, unlike in other places where they might actually ban people from wearing burquas or building a building, that's not what America was founded on nor is it what America should become."
Manhattan borough President Scott Stringer also fired back at Palin via Twitter, writing, "@SarahPalinUSA NYers support the #mosque in the name of tolerance and understanding. You should learn from the example we set here in #NYC."
Other words that were being considered for Word of the Year included 'gleek,' 'crowdsourcing,' 'vuvuzela,' and 'retweet.'
