December 10, 2006
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"Truthiness"? That's supposed to be a word?
Apparently Merriam-Webster conducted a survey to find out what one word sums up the year 2006, and "truthiness" won, 5 to 1.
Truthiness?
It was first used in November of '05 by a comedian, Stephen Colbert, of whom I'd not heard until working on that interconnected-word puzzle a few months ago. Since it has presumably leapt into the public lexicon to the point it's the 2006 Merriam-Webster Word of the Year, it's really rather astonishing how much influence these comedians have nowadays.
Personally, I'm not sure that's a good thing.
Comments (4)
But what does it mean???? I don't mind people coming up with email, snail mail etc. but truthiness??? It doesn't mean anything!! Enlighten this elderly person!! What does it mean????
Truthiness is a satirical term popularized by Stephen Colbert in reference to the quality by which a person claims to know something intuitively, instinctively, or "from the gut" without regard to evidence, logic, intellectual examination, or actual facts (similar to the meaning of "bellyfeel", a Newspeak term from George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four). Colbert created this definition of the word during the inaugural episode (October 17, 2005) of his satirical television program The Colbert Report, as the subject of a segment called "The WØRD". It was named word of the year for 2005 by the American Dialect Society and for 2006 by Miriam-Webster.
By using the term as part of his satirical routine, Colbert sought to critique the tendency to rely upon "truthiness" and its use as an appeal to emotion and tool of rhetoric in contemporary socio-political discourse. He particularly applied it to President Bush's modus operandi in nominating Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court and in deciding to invade Iraq as well as the rationale behind Wikipedia (see Wikiality).
Ah HA! Thank you, Lois.
I do understand the idea of using truthiness as meaning the inherant veracity of a particular idea or statement, however, one can extrapolate this to being a bit rediculous, such as miseriness, cheapliness, etc. Of course, couldn't veracity work just as well??
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