"A rose is a rose is a rose."
Thursday, July 22, 2010 at 7:19PM Quoth Gertrude Stein.
You knew I would have to weigh in on this, didn't you? I really didn't want to do it, but I find that I cannot help myself. This silly Sarah Palin business with "refudiate." She said it or tweeted it or whatever.
I'm not a fan, but my first thought was, "Give it a rest." Everyone has done something like this at some point. We stumble over words. It happens. Some people do it on a regular basis, with the un-word "irregardless."
But then she had to respond to the criticism. And how did she respond? By comparing herself to Shakespeare. Because, you know, he created words, too.
Sigh.
Here's the thing, Former Governor Palin. Shakespeare meant to create the words he created. He put an enormous amount of thought into the creation of those words. (How do I know this? Well, he was a writer. As a rule, writers tend to put a great deal of thought into the words they use. It's sort of the nature of the beast.)
Here's the other thing. Shakespeare didn't so much create new words as he created new applications for existing words. Or borrowed words from other languages and was credited with their first attestation in the English language. The split was probably something like 70:30, borrowed to created.
What Ms. Palin did might be considered a "malamanteau," I suppose. Yes! That's exactly what it is, because "malamanteau" is, itself, a malamanteau. That is, a word that incorrectly combines two other words into one. Think "misunderestimate" or "strategery." "Malamanteau" combines "mal," meaning "bad," with the "manteau" part of "portmanteau," which is "a word formed by blending sounds from two or more distinct words and combining their meanings." (Thank you Wikipedia--also a portmanteau word.)
I don't know about you, but I'm exhausted.
Reader Comments (2)
Very funny. I feel so ensmartened by that last paragraph. I can't imagine being recorded all day. It'd be a daily bloopers show, but with a very small audience.
"Ensmartened." That's excellent!
I actually sometimes consider my blog to be a daily bloopers show, with a very small audience. Thanks for dropping in.