Welcome to Buster's Blog

Irregular commentary on whatever's on my mind -- politics, sports, current events, and life in general. After twenty years of writing business and community newsletters, fifteen years of fantasy baseball newsletters, and two years of email "columns", this is, I suppose, the inevitable result: the awful conceit that someone might actually care to read what I have to say. Posts may be added often, rarely, or never again. As always, my mood and motivation are unpredictable.

Buster Gammons















Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Palinpropism

(Sent by a faithful reader.  Thanks, faithful reader!)
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Sister Sarah was dumped by Fox News, but will once again be a featured speaker at this year's CPAC conference.  So don't throw away all those old Sarah Palin jokes just yet!
 
Subject: Palinpropism: Urban Word of the Day


February 19: Palinpropism

1. The unintentional use of wrong words: the misuse of a word through confusion with another word that sounds similar, or the creation of a new word in an attempt to sound scholarly or educated.
2. absurd or humorous misuse of words, terms, or phrases especially by confusing terms, words or historical events with others.
3. The act of creating new words out of frustration when one has limited knowledge of a particular event or subject matter.
"'Refudiate,' 'misunderestimate,' 'wee-wee'd up.' English is a living language. Shakespeare liked to coin new words too. Got to celebrate it!'" --a Tweet sent by Sarah Palin in response to being ridiculed for inventing the word "refudiate," proudly mistaking her illiteracy for literary genius, July 18, 2010.
 
In this example, both refudiate and misunderestimate are examples of palinpropism.



 
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