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VOCABULARY WORD: REFUTERegarding the Colorado Springs Gazette article about the District Attorney's investigation of the former executive director of the American Numismatic Association, George Kolbe writes: Perhaps the below sentence is a quote, but surely it cannot be accurate. If it is, the charges should be dropped. "Cipoletti refuted the claims Friday." Arthur Shippee writes: I think you mean he denied them. Could he in fact disprove them? Those words were in the article published by the Gazette of Colorado Springs. They didn't seem right to me either, but I was too lazy to be a smart aleck and comment. Usually, I can count on my readers for that (ta-da!). I was all set to agree that the reporter should have chosen the words more carefully, thinking that Cipoletti merely denied the charges. To refute them would be to disprove them, and that's for the court to decide. However, as an Editor I felt compelled to check the dictionary, and found the following definitions in Merriam-Webster. -Editor 1 : to prove wrong by argument or evidence : show to be false or erroneous 2 : to deny the truth or accuracy of refuted the allegations www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/refute So, I guess the reporter was technically correct, although I'm still on the side of George and Arthur in preferring the more narrow primary definition of the word. -Editor To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see: FORMER ANA EXECUTIVE INVESTIGATED; ELECTION BALLOTS DUE JUNE 26 (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v12n24a13.html) THE BOOK BAZARREWayne Homren, Editor The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org. To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum All Rights Reserved. NBS Home Page Contact the NBS webmaster 
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