During the Ohio debate on February 26, Senator Obama said he "denounced" the anti-Semitic statements of the Reverend Louis Farrakhan. Senator Clinton challenged Senator Obama to do more: she urged her political rival to "reject" (although it wasn't clear whether she was suggesting Obama reject Farrakhan's support or his anti-Semitic views). Obama agreed to "concede the point" and pronounced himself willing to both "reject and denounce."

Denounce is the stronger word, however: since the 13th century, the transitive verb (with an ancestor in the Old French word meaning "to proclaim") has meant "to pronounce, especially publicly, that a thing is blameworthy or evil." Unlike criticize, censure, or condemn, denounce suggests stigmatizing publicly with force, vehemence, or conviction.

Then there's reject. Reject comes from the Latin verb meaning "to throw again, or throw anew," and dates to the 15th century. To reject something is to refuse to accept, consider, submit to, take for some purpose, or use.

The combination of the two words seems to be catching on in the culture (think "kinder, gentler"). In early March both Katrina Vanden Heuvel (in Newsweek) and Keith Olberman (on MSNBC's Countdown) also used the two words together. Could this be the formation of a new superlative form of rhetorical rejection and denouncement?