Going Rogue

… I actually bought Palin’s latest book.  Ok, so it was as a gag gift for the faculty Christmas dinner, but this does mean that I have bought both of her books.  I did read her first one, “A New Kind Of Leader”, and even got an A on the report for my Leadership class. 

… But this post is about the word “rogue” and choosing one’s words carefully.

… There’s been a few letters in the Public Forum of the Salt Lake Tribune that have commented on the meaning of the word “rogue” and it’s negative connotations.  Today’s writer looked up the word in the American College Dictionary, I can’t remember the one the previous writer used, I looked it up online just to double check the facts.

Dictionary.com:

–noun

• a dishonest, knavish person; scoundrel.
• a playfully mischievous person; scamp
• a tramp or vagabond.
• a rogue elephant or other animal of similar disposition.
• Biology. a usually inferior organism, esp. a plant, varying markedly from the normal.

–verb

• to cheat.
• to uproot or destroy (plants, etc., that do not conform to a desired standard).

–adjective

• (of an animal) having an abnormally savage or unpredictable disposition, as a rogue elephant.
• no longer obedient, belonging, or accepted and hence not controllable or answerable; deviating, renegade: a rogue cop; a rogue union local, a rogue Alaskan Governor and Vice Presidential candidate. (ok, I added that last little bit in.)

Mirriam-Webster.com added:

• a dishonest or worthless person; scoundrel
• an individual exhibiting a chance and usually inferior biological variation

… Giving her the benefit of the doubt, I’ll assume she was going for something close to the meaning I put in red, in order to imply she does not follow the dictates of the party line or follow what the powers that be would expect her to do.

… Yet, being the astute political observer that she is, you would have expected her to anticipate the fun and ridicule that opponents would get from the many other, less complimentary, meanings of the word.

… Then again, maybe not.