Conveyor Belt
12-11-2006, 10:21 AM
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061208/ap_on_re_us/word_of_the_year_2
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - After 12 months of naked partisanship on Capitol Hill, on cable TV and in the blogosphere, the word of the year for 2006 is ... "truthiness."
The word — if one can call it that — best summed up 2006, according to an online survey by dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster.
"Truthiness" was credited to Comedy Central satirist Stephen Colbert, who defined it as "truth that comes from the gut, not books."
"We're at a point where what constitutes truth is a question on a lot of people's minds, and truth has become up for grabs," said Merriam-Webster president John Morse. "`Truthiness' is a playful way for us to think about a very important issue."
Other Top 10 finishers included "war," "insurgent," "sectarian" and "corruption." But "truthiness" won 5-to-1, Morse said.
Colbert, who once derided the folks at Springfield-based Merriam-Webster as the "word police" and a bunch of "wordinistas," was pleased.
"Though I'm no fan of reference books and their fact-based agendas, I am a fan of anyone who chooses to honor me," he said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.
http://www.m-w.com/info/06words.htm
1. truthiness (noun)
1 : "truth that comes from the gut, not books" (Stephen Colbert, Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report," October 2005)
2 : "the quality of preferring concepts or facts one wishes to be true, rather than concepts or facts known to be true" (American Dialect Society, January 2006)
Click on each of the other words in the Top Ten List for their definitions in the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary:
2. google
3. decider
4. war
5. insurgent
6. terrorism
7. vendetta
8. sectarian
9. quagmire
10. corruption
No Wham-Bam-Shaabam, damn. However, decider made #3, sectarian made #8... I think truthiness is probably the best one, though... it will definitley bring back memories of '06 as soon as I hear it 15 years from now...
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - After 12 months of naked partisanship on Capitol Hill, on cable TV and in the blogosphere, the word of the year for 2006 is ... "truthiness."
The word — if one can call it that — best summed up 2006, according to an online survey by dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster.
"Truthiness" was credited to Comedy Central satirist Stephen Colbert, who defined it as "truth that comes from the gut, not books."
"We're at a point where what constitutes truth is a question on a lot of people's minds, and truth has become up for grabs," said Merriam-Webster president John Morse. "`Truthiness' is a playful way for us to think about a very important issue."
Other Top 10 finishers included "war," "insurgent," "sectarian" and "corruption." But "truthiness" won 5-to-1, Morse said.
Colbert, who once derided the folks at Springfield-based Merriam-Webster as the "word police" and a bunch of "wordinistas," was pleased.
"Though I'm no fan of reference books and their fact-based agendas, I am a fan of anyone who chooses to honor me," he said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.
http://www.m-w.com/info/06words.htm
1. truthiness (noun)
1 : "truth that comes from the gut, not books" (Stephen Colbert, Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report," October 2005)
2 : "the quality of preferring concepts or facts one wishes to be true, rather than concepts or facts known to be true" (American Dialect Society, January 2006)
Click on each of the other words in the Top Ten List for their definitions in the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary:
2. google
3. decider
4. war
5. insurgent
6. terrorism
7. vendetta
8. sectarian
9. quagmire
10. corruption
No Wham-Bam-Shaabam, damn. However, decider made #3, sectarian made #8... I think truthiness is probably the best one, though... it will definitley bring back memories of '06 as soon as I hear it 15 years from now...