The Word of the Year is "truthiness"

[sleipnir214]

The following is a quote from a news release in PDF form at

http://www.americandialect.org/Words_of_the_Year_2005.pdf

Truthiness Voted 2005 Word of the Year
by American Dialect Society

In its 16th annual words of the year vote, the American Dialect Society voted truthiness as the word of the year. First heard on the Colbert Report, a satirical mock news show on the Comedy Channel, truthiness refers to the quality of preferring concepts or facts one wishes to be true, rather than concepts or facts known to be true. As Stephen Colbert put it, “I don't trust books. They're all fact, no heart.”

Word of the Year is interpreted in its broader sense as “vocabulary item”—not just words but phrases. The words or phrases do not have to be brand new, but they have to be newly prominent or notable in the past year, in the manner of Time magazine’s Person of the Year. The election is serious, based on members’ expertise in the study of words, but it is far from solemn.

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TANSTAAFL!!

 

[CRilliterate]

Huh?

 

[sleipnir214]

I don't understand your question. Or was that a comment?

Want the best answers? Ask the best questions!

TANSTAAFL!!

 

[SkipVought]

Attributableness

The tendency of preferring to attribute to someone the character attributes that one believes to be true, based on personal experience and cynicism, rather than the character attributes that could be true from other motives utterly foreign or unknow by personal experience and knowledge.

Skip,
[sub]
[red]Be Advised![/red] The Vinyards of Texas have produced a wine with diuretic dimishment and urethric relief...
Pinot More![/sub]

 

[chiph]

Truthiness"
Goes against the North Carolina state motto:

Esse quam videri
To be, rather than to seem

Chip H.


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[SteveGlo]

That explains a lot. Apparently large numbers of people think the world is less than 10000 years old, and large numbers of people think it is billions of years old. So either side would judge the other's views to be examples of truthiness - I suppose?

But is truthiness supposed to be a 'good' or 'bad' thing to accuse or be accused of? Will it become another content-free tag that you can insult people with (as with 'political-correctness') - I wait with a degree of bated breath - we are a bit slow in the yUK but we generally pick up on these trends eventually.

 

[CRilliterate]

I have my doubtees about itit.

Seriously is English that complex so people mock it anyway they want because it is so complicated...or it is because so many people live here whos native tongues are different and it gets all 'added-on'?

 

[Trevoke]

Lack of education pushes people to make up words because they are unaware that words exist beyond the 3,000 they use in their daily life.
... Maybe I'm a little harsh with the number.

"That time in Seattle... was a nightmare. I came out of it dead broke, without a house, without anything except a girlfriend and a knowledge of UNIX."
"Well, that's something," Avi says. "Normally those two are mutually exclusive."
-- Neal Stephenson, "Cryptonomicon"

 

[BoxHead]

Trevoke,

I don't think you're being "harsh".

Maybe just a bit attributable?

(Thanks, Skip)

John

 

[CRilliterate]

Trevoke,
you said 'because they are unaware that words exist beyond the 3,000 they use in their daily life' Was there word for 'thruthiness' that existed prior to this 'nomination'?

 

[Dollie]

I think "truthiness" has a ring of truth to it. Places it is applicable are USENET forums (where trolls reign), gossip columns, and in political arenas.

There are some who make assumptions or flat out fabricate stories, and become convinced that they are true. When those assumptions and stories are repeated, they take on a form of truthiness to the originator, and infuriate the audience.

Truthiness is in the eye of the flamer.

The elephant in the room is usually ignored.

 

[Dollie]

Sorry about the rampant use of animated smileys, but they were too funny to not use in appropriate context.

Or at least what I thought was appropriate. Is that truthiness?

 

[CRilliterate]

Absolutefinitely!

 

[SkipVought]

I don't think that it's a lack of education at all.

Because you see yahoo professors, like Ward Churchill (who would have been a prime candidate for casting a positive vote in the American Dialect Society, IMHO), all liquered up with learnin’, but who couldn't find their posterior orifices from apertures in the turf, produced by “freedom fighters” directing incendiary devices at capitalist, imperialist, jingoistic women and children.


Skip,
[sub]
[red]Be Advised![/red] The Vinyards of Texas have produced a wine with diuretic dimishment and urethric relief...
Pinot More![/sub]

 

[Dollie]

Absolutefinitely!

Absitively posilutely?

 

[CRilliterate]

Noops! Absolutely/definitely collision...

 

[AnotherHiggins]

[sub](disclaimer - lest any of you think I am a fanatic and/or I don't ever work, let me point out that I've written the following novel a little bit at a time since reading Trevoke's response yesterday morning)[/sub]

Lack of education pushes people to make up words

I agree that the lexicon of the average American is lamentably restricted. But it wasn't a lack of education that led to this word's creation. Stephen Colbert coined it in the debut episode of his show, Colbert Report, on Comedy Central. It airs just after The Daily Show.

The tongue-in-cheek nature of the word is reflected in the website’s post:

Also, hearty congratulations to Stephen for "truthiness" being named the #1 word of 2005! The honor is a true testament to his lexitude and dictionacity.

(emphasis mine)

For those who haven’t seen Colbert Report, it is a send-up of a news show ala Bill O’ Reilly, in which Colbert takes on the role of a completely self-absorbed, narcissistic conservative pundit. The very name of the show is an indicator of how seriously is doesn’t take itself…. Colbert is a French name, so the ‘T’ is silent. Therefore the ‘Report’ in the show’s title is also left silent: kol-'ber re-'pOr

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[CRilliterate]

Yesterday Colbert had another ugly pugly word and I was trying to remember it but to no avail...anyone?

 

[Trevoke]

CRIlliterate : No, there wasn't, and I am certain that this is why it was named 'word of the year'. The Daily Show and Colbert Report are made by people who are very competent -- it takes skill to make fun of people repeatedly and not let it become boring, or ever cross a line.
The word 'truthiness' defines a concept for which there was no real word before, to my knowledge -- although I could be easily convinced that there is a medical term for such a psychological disease.

"That time in Seattle... was a nightmare. I came out of it dead broke, without a house, without anything except a girlfriend and a knowledge of UNIX."
"Well, that's something," Avi says. "Normally those two are mutually exclusive."
-- Neal Stephenson, "Cryptonomicon"

 

[SamBones]

Wow, there really is an American Dialect Society! I thought it was just part of the Colbert Report's "bit". I hadn't followed the link.

Here's their complete list of word nominations for 2005. Pretty interesting (and funny).