Birth of a nova--not?

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 1/19/06, Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
> On 1/19/06, RonButters at aol.com <RonButters at aol.com> wrote:
> >
> > In a message dated 1/18/06 8:32:18 PM, AAllan at AOL.COM writes:
> >
> > > 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.
> >
> > Nah, TRUTHINESS is not a lexicological nova, it is a cute, stunt-wordy flash
> > in the lexicographical pan and will go the way of BUSHLIPS, and about as
> > quickly.
>
> This may very well be true. Even the blogospheric usage has dropped
> precipitously, as can be seen from this graph:
>
> http://blogpulse.com/trend?query1=truthiness&days=100&x=17&y=8

I've just posted about this on the Language Log, incorporating some of
the ADS-L discussion.

http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002769.html


--Ben Zimmer

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