( CNN ) -- I do n't care much for Sarah Palin 's politics , but I do like her word `` refudiate . '' As I just typed the word , a squiggly red line appeared under it with a suggestion that I change the word to repudiate . Well , for the record , I repudiate that suggestion and refudiate it . People who do n't like political figures often make fun of their language . H.L . Mencken said of a Warren G. Harding speech : `` It is rumble and bumble . It is flap and doodle . It is balder and dash . '' Jimmy Carter 's enemies portrayed him as a hick from the sticks , not just because of his brother Billy , but for his Southern speech , including his pronunciation of nuclear . It does n't seem to matter whether you have a reputation as brainy and articulate . John Kennedy 's Harvard dialect created a cottage industry of comic impressionists . At the other end of the spectrum was George W. Bush , whose Bushisms were legion . Opponents of President Obama attack his use of language as elitist , professorial or passionless . In other words , Palin stands in good company . And I stand with her . What was her crime ? She made up a new word -- unintentionally perhaps , but it does n't matter . I once referred to a highly paid athlete as a godzillionaire . I meant to say gazillionaire , but when I caught myself , I realized my `` mistake '' was better : the athlete 's wealth was ginormous , as big and monstrous as the Japanese icon Godzilla . I 'm all for coining neologisms , the technical name for a new word minted into the English language . One type of neologism is called a blend , as when two words are joined to form a third . The words web and log gave birth to blog . The merger of gigantic and enormous gave us the increasingly popular ginormous , which I thought was a kid 's malapropism until I read it on a billboard . There 's a chance that Palin , who compared her language creativity to Shakespeare 's , may in fact be more in tune with Mrs. Malaprop , a famous theatrical character who appeared in Richard Sheridan 's 1775 play `` The Rivals . '' The great lady would lend her name to the confusion of language , as when she meant to say pinnacle but referred to another character as `` the very pineapple of politeness . '' I knew a burned-out teacher who would collect and publish his student 's mistakes , such as a passage in which a young woman was said to `` tilt her head with a delicate air of expectoration . '' Ptooey ! Children 's mistakes are often among the most creative . My niece Mary Hope electrified her family by referring to something as an obstacle illusion . This seemed amusing but useless until the recent day when I thought I saw an orange cone blocking my exit from a casino parking garage . Well guess what ? Turned out to be an obstacle illusion . Lewis Carroll made great use of blends in poems such as `` Jabberwocky , '' in which slimy and lithe collide to form slithy . A Canadian radio word contest invited listeners to coin a word for that straining sound a Canadian car makes on a frigid morning ? The winner was a blend : cranksinatra . The most popular guess is that refudiate was an unintended blend of refute and repudiate . I like the fact that the sound `` feud '' rests in the middle because that seems to define Palin 's form of maverickism : feudish . And let 's not forget the verb refuse , meaning to reject . There may even be a historical allusion here ( perhaps an obstacle allusion ) to Refuseniks , those disgruntled Soviet citizens not permitted to emigrate . Perhaps another influence is radiate . Maybe if you radiate refusal , perhaps can be said to refudiate . It 's all good . I 'm for more fun and more color in political speech , including the occasional swing and miss that turns into a home run . The alternative is all script and spin , all euphemism and disclaimer , all flap and doodle , signifying nothing . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Roy Peter Clark .
" " Clark : Sarah Palin 's creation of a new word , ` ` refudiate , '' was inspired . He says blending words has a long history in English . The words ` ` , '' and ` ` log '' gave rise to ` ` blog , '' Clark says . Clark : ` ` I ' look for more meaning and more color in political speech ''