Well, apparently Truthiness is winning many “Word of the Year” competitions. You may recall, class, that I have often pointed to The Language Log as a great place to visit. Thanks be to them for pointing out this news.
So why blog on this? Well, as you all are aware, Truthiness is a Stephen Colbert travesty thatrefers “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.” (Reference, Wikipedia–I know I know, I don’t let you use it on OFFICIAL papers, but hey, the truthiness of using Wiki makes sense here)
Given this definition, it seems somehow “right” that a non-word wins as Word of the Year. It’s got that “gut feel” to it that says it should win. Heck, that it must win. Forget that it isn’t a word, or that it is (according to the same Wiki definition) simply a recasting in Colbert fashion, a concept Orwell described in his creation of the word “bellyfeel.”
Ahh, well.
I’m trying to find an e-mail to send you a short note, but can’t seem to find it anywhere. If you could forward it to me, I’d be happy to e-mail you.
‘Truthiness’ just about sums up how some people approach decision-making. Sounds like an appropriate definition for the half-truths we’ve had to put up with for 6 years. It’s got my vote.
spared:
Perhaps you are right. Of course, the point of my post wasn’t to challenge the definition of the non-word, but rather to challenge the notion that a ‘non-word’ would win for “word of the year.”
If you are curious, there was an interesting article in the WSJ on 2 Jan 07 that noted a shift in advice to managers to no longer manage from the gut. It wasn’t the key part of the article (written on how to better care for subordinates) but it was there.