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Lots of those who heard "bigly" for the first time last night assumed it had been a neologism invented by the GOP candidate, much as former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin once urged Muslims to "refudiate" plans for a mosque in lower Manhattan.

They’re expressions of beliefs and political and ideological positions that turn out to be intensely unpopular or offensive to a segment of the population, and the press, usually so careful in our language, tosses them in the same linguistic barrel as when Palin said “refudiate” or when President George W. Bush talked about “how hard it is to put food on your family.”

Think about the buzzwords of the recent past — dial-up, chad, Y2K, refudiate — for a sense of how quickly we move on.

Like Sarah Palin’s “refudiate” or Anthony Weiner’s repeated sexting faux pas, Bachmann’s serial killer faux pas was tantalizing click-bait—a snarky jab at a favorite target—too good to pass up.

While it’s great for Sarah Palin that she can circumnavigate the “lamestream” media using Facebook and Twitter, with that power comes a certain responsibility to not send tweets using the word “refudiate.”