Birth of a nova - truthiness

[Barnhart]

I like the astronomical association.  It gives the notion that we're not
always cognizant of a terms birth, in some cases anyway, until long after
the fact.  Perhaps many such birthings are like pulsars than novas.  They
seem to come and go.  The frequency of the appearance of the term gasohol
has been compared to the rise and fall of the price of gasoline.  As the
price goes up the media tend to talk more about alternative fuels.  I
wonder if the scandal scale in Washington will have a similar effect on
the appearance of the term truthy, -iness.

Regards,
David B.

barnhart at highlands.com
Lexik at highlands.com

American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on Wednesday, January
18, 2006 at 5:07 AM -0500 wrote:
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>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       AAllan at AOL.COM
>Subject:      Birth of a nova - truthiness
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>
>Like astronomers witnessing the birth of a nova, we are watching the
>nativity
>and infancy of a new word that has the possibility of becoming a permanent
>addition to the vocabulary. And we have been midwives.
>
>This is rare. It hasn't happened with any of the 15 previous ADS Words of
>the
>Year. They either were well established already, or were clever ephemera
>that
>vanished despite anything we did. Our co-Words of the Year for 1995
>provide
>examples: "World Wide Web" of the former, "newt" 'to make aggressive
>changes as
>a newcomer' (from U.S. Representative Newt Gingrich) of the latter.
>
>But for 2005 we happened to choose a word that was not known even to many
>of
>the WOTY voters, and could easily have vanished from sight. Instead, it
>got a
>boost from repeated new mentions by its originator on national
>television. And
>then, just as O.K. got its second wind from the O.K. Clubs supporting
>Martin
>Van Buren for president in 1840, "truthiness" rides piggyback on a million
>little pieces.
>
>Two more examples: Time Magazine's (Jan 23) article on James Frey's book
>refers to "truthiness" being chosen WOTY by "a panel of linguists." And
>today's
>(Jan 18) Chicago Tribune has a column by Clarence Page that begins:
>
><<Maybe `truthiness' will make you feel a lot better about those things
>called details
>
>WASHINGTON -- When the American Dialect Society recently named
>"truthiness"
>its 16th annual Word of the Year, the choice sounded like a joke.
>
>New revelations about James Frey's partly made-up best-selling memoir
>about
>his addiction to alcohol and crack and arrests make "truthiness" sound
>timely
>and downright prophetic. Frey admitted last week that he embellished some
>details of his life in "A Million Little Pieces," such as serving time in
>prison.
>He actually served a few hours in a lockup for traffic violations. . . .>
>
>We may be at a tipping point here. A word that is perceived as a joke
>will be
>laughed at but rarely will come into general use. Now, to Page at least,
>it's
>no longer a joke. ("OK" began as a joke abbreviation for "oll korrekt." It
>finally escaped its joking origin and became widespread around 1900.)
>
>We will know the word is on its way to success when it no longer needs a
>gloss but is understood without explanation. It's helped by its
>derivation from an
>existing word and suffixes. That is, it has evolved naturally rather than
>being a special creation, though there was some intelligent design behind
>Colbert's use.
>
>The phenomenon of "truthiness" may well be worth a paper at the ADS Annual
>Meeting or an article in American Speech. If I were writing _Predicting
>New
>Words_ now, I'd definitely include it. - Allan Metcalf
>
>Reference
>
>Metcalf, Allan. _Predicting New Words: The Secrets of Their Success._
>Boston:
>Houghton Mifflin, 2002.
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org