RIGHT WORD: Careful writers use it

By: Richard Creed | Winston-Salem Journal
Published: November 08, 2009

Aquestion from a Winston-Salem reader has inspired me to present a little multiple-choice quiz about a caption that appeared in the Winston-Salem Journal on Oct. 1. The caption, under a picture of former Gov. Mike Easley, said, "Former Gov. Mike Easley refuted the testimony of McQueen Campbell."

Based on the information in the caption: (A) Easley proved that Campbell's testimony was false. (B) He contended but did not prove that Campbell's testimony was false. (C) It's impossible to tell.

Before I give the answer, here is the reader's question that prompted it: "Shouldn't it (the caption) have said ‘rebutted' instead of ‘refuted'"? The answer to that question is yes.

The answer to the quiz is (C). Based on dictionary definitions, it is impossible to tell what Easley did. Modern dictionaries have made the words refute and rebut virtually interchangeable.

For instance, Random House Webster's Unabridged defines refute as "to prove to be false or erroneous." Then it lists disprove and rebut as synonyms. It defines rebut as "to refute by evidence or argument" or "to oppose by contrary proof."

Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary defines refute as "to prove wrong by argument or evidence" or "to deny the truth or accuracy of." It defines rebut as "to contradict or oppose by formal legal argument, plea or countervailing proof" or "to expose the falsity of." It lists refute as a synonym.

Since dictionaries say that the two words are synonymous, why do I say that the caption should have said "rebut" instead of "refute"? The reason is that careful writers and speakers observe a distinction despite the definitions. They reserve refute to mean prove the falsity of. They reserve rebut to mean to deny or challenge the accuracy of.

Among those who honor the distinction is The Associated Press Stylebook, which the Journal generally follows. It says: "Rebut means to argue to the contrary…. Refute connotes success in argument and almost always implies an editorial judgment."

Under those guidelines, only a judge or a jury can decide whether testimony during a trial or hearing has been refuted. A rebuttal does not constitute a refutation.

Writers would be wise to leave the use of refute to officers of the court. They would be wise to follow the stylebook's recommendation to use deny, dispute, rebut or respond to instead of refute.

An item here last week was about crepuscular animals, which are animals that prefer to forage at twilight. Crepuscular is the adjective form of crepuscule, which means twilight. The item drew this response from Steve Cramer of Winston-Salem:

"Regarding crepuscular animals, the famous Thelonius Monk tune ‘Crepuscule With Nellie' came to my mind. Nellie was Monk's wife, but I had never really thought about what crepuscule meant. I assumed it was the name of an obscure type of dance."

From Patricia Stockmeister of Winston-Salem: "One more to add to your columns about ‘ize-ing' or ‘-ized' words: A YouTube video was about dance music that babies and toddlers dance to. The title was ‘Dance Is Infantalized.'

"Somehow my tired brain saw the word as ‘infanticided,' which was alarming. Both words are very objectionable, but I foresee a future in which our world of grammar will be horribly wordized."

From Lee Pulliam of Winston-Salem: "In your column today (Nov. 1), Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses was printed as A Child's Garden of Verse. The book was given to me on my eighth birthday about a hundred years ago. I still have and treasure it."

Ah, memories. I also had a copy of the book as a child, and the title was A Child's Garden of Verse, not Verses. I checked booksellers online and found that Verses predominates, but some editions have it as Verse. I quoted the title that I remember.

Richard Creed is a retired Journal editor. He can be reached at
richcreed@triad.rr.com.