Trend Watch

Repudiate

A rare point of bipartisan agreement following midterm elections ...

When:

Lookups spiked on November 5, 2014.

Why:

After widespread victories by Republicans in the midterm elections, a rare point of bipartisan agreement was shown in the vocabulary used to describe Democratic losses.

Senator Rand Paul said: "Make no mistake, tonight is a repudiation of Barack Obama's policies and leadership." An aide to President Obama told the New York Times on Tuesday night that the president "doesn't feel repudiated." Even Jon Stewart used - and repeated - the word repudiation on his show.

Repudiate means "to refuse to accept or support (something)" or "to reject (something)." Its original meaning in English was "to divorce" and comes from the Latin word that means "to reject" or "to divorce."


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