refute = 'repudiate'; catastrophic = 'extraordinarily severe'

[Baker, John]

        Is this an incorrect use of "catastrophic"?  I had supposed that
catastrophic=disastrous was uncontroversial.

        Rebut=refute is already a little too widely accepted in
journalistic circles for my liking.  I hope that refute=repudiate,
reject doesn't catch on.


John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of Ben Zimmer
Sent: Friday, August 13, 2010 1:01 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: refute = 'repudiate'; catastrophic = 'extraordinarily
severe'

On Fri, Aug 13, 2010 at 12:49 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
> 2010 S. Palin in _New Yorker_ (Aug. 16) 27: Peaceful New Yorkers, pls
refute
> the Ground Zero mosque plan if you believe catastrophic pain caused @
Twin
> Towers site is too raw, too real.

Why not just cite the tweet itself (from July 18)?

http://twitter.com/SarahPalinUSA/status/18855185436

via:
http://motivatedgrammar.wordpress.com/2010/07/20/refudiate-how-to-miscre
ate-a-word/

cited by me here:
http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wordroutes/2360/


--
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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