refudiate
verbUS, UK /ɹɪˈfjuː.di.eɪt/
Etymology Blend of refute + repudiate. Often associated with Sarah Palin's infamous 2010 lapsus linguae. A few rare attestations predate the 1970s. Since then the word has been uncommon although not rare, but many written occurrences of the word focus on prescriptively repudiating its use; it remains nonstandard.
1
Nonstandard To repudiate, to oppose.
- Blends are the simplest kind of slip of the tongue […] some examples […] "refudiating" (refuting + repudiating).1951, Rulon Wells, "Predicting Slips of the Tongue"; reprinted in Victoria Fromkin (editor), Speech Errors as Linguistic Evidence, 1973, Walter de Gruyter, page 85
- […] their articles were read to determine whether the citation was to substantiate or refudiate the initial claim or was it a "quote of acceptance".1980 January 23, Report of Joint Commission on Prescription Drug Use, page 1:
4 more examples
- ‘Captain Blip? Never,’ he said, without ceasing to calculate. ‘I refudiate that.’ ‘You what?’ Jane felt suddenly cold all over. ‘There’s no such word, Denny.’1984, John Sladek, The Lunatics of Terra, Wildside Press LLC, published 2005, →ISBN, page 77:
- The value of given data can and must be judged regardless of the hypothesis they are supposed to support or refudiate.1987, Mahabalagiri N. Hegde, Clinical Research in Communicative Disorders: Principles and Strategies, Little, Brown, →ISBN, page 317:
- I am going to do everything I can along with the Chairman to see this Congress refudiate the certification of certain countries that are not complying.1988 March 3, James Bilbray, quoted in Worldwide Narcotics Review of the 1988 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, U.S. Government Printing Office, page 9
- a. 2008, Alan Moore writes in the subsection, Dr. Manhattan: Super-powers and the Superpowers, pg. iii, of Chapter IV, in Watchmen The suggestion that the presence of a superhuman has inclined the world more towards peace is refudiated by the sharp increase in both Russian and American nuclear stockpiles since the advent of Dr. Manhattan.