TO refudiate or not to refudiate?

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin defended her newly-created word today, then compared herself to Shakespeare in the realm of coining new terminology.

The word was "refudiate" - it was unclear if she meant refute or repudiate - and she first used it last week on Fox News's Hannity show when she called on President Obama and his wife Michelle to "refudiate" the NAACP's suggestion that the Tea Party movement was racist.

By today, "refudiate" had popped up again. In a tweet addressing the Ground Zero mosque controversy, Ms Palin wrote: "Ground Zero Mosque supporters: doesn't it stab you in the heart, as it does ours throughout the heartland? Peaceful Muslims, pls refudiate."

Within hours, that tweet was deleted. A second tweet asked "peaceful New Yorkers" to "refute the Ground Zero mosque plan" and a third suggested rejecting it.

Then came a fourth tweet, apparently acknowledging her language tussle: "'Refudiate,' 'misunderestimate,' 'wee-wee'd up.' English is a living language. Shakespeare liked to coin new words too. Got to celebrate it!”

For the record, former President George W Bush used "misunderdestimate" and Mr Obama last year referred to people in Washington being "wee-wee'd up" in August. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs later tried to explain it away by saying, "I think wee-weed up is when people just get all nervous for no particular reason."

Ms Palin's word has already made it onto urbandictionary.com, an online slang dictionary.

Originally published as Palin compares herself to Shakespeare