Sarah Palin coined a new term earlier this week when, in a tweet addressed to “Ground Zero Mosque supporters”, she called on “Peaceful Muslims” to “pls. refudiate” a development proposed for lower Manhattan. Her comments referred to a planned 13-story project that will house a mosque, gymnasium and a community center.
Her choice of words was met with harsh criticism from around the blogosphere, on the airwaves and in print. While many commentators took aim at her use of the term “Peaceful Muslims”, others took her to task for manufacturing the word “refudiate”. What did she mean? Refute? Repudiate?
In response to those comments, the former Governor of Alaska issued another tweet, likening her creative use of language to that of the Bard’s.
Twitter users did celebrate. Under the hash tag #ShakesPalin they’ve created a collection of phrases combining Shakespeare’s work with Palin –speak. One example:"'Refudiate,' 'misunderestimate,' 'wee-wee'd up.' English is a living language. Shakespeare liked to coin new words too. Got to celebrate it!"
“But soft, what light from yonder window breaks? It is the East, and I can see Russia from my front porch.”
Okay, enough of the politics. If you want to read what Shakespeare wrote, check out the Shakespeare Quartos Archive. That site provides access to reproductions of least one copy of every edition of William Shakespeare’s plays printed in quarto before the theatres closed in 1642. The digital repository – a digipository if you will – is a collaborative effort between educational institutions and government agencies in the United States and in the United Kingdom.
The photo of Sarah Palin comes from http://www.america.gov/.
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