Truthiness is t he 2005 Word of the Year

Mon Jan 9 02:09:00 UTC 2006

<HTML><HTML>Come on, JL, the vulgar doubters said the same thing about BUSH LIPS--and look how relevant THAT term is today! 
 
In all truthiness, the Word of the Year festival is not a serious scholarly enterprise, it is a fabulous publicity stunt that helps academics in general and lexicographers in particular overcome the public's perception of us as somber, harmful drudges. Sometimes the New Words circus does something that is worthy of serious scholarly respect, such as declaring "she" as the New Word of the Milenium, and the reaction is generally "Huh? That is like soooo boring." That is a mistake that is increasingly not being repeated. 
 
In a message dated 1/7/06 9:16:44 AM, wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM writes: 
 
 
<BLOCKQUOTE CITE STYLE="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px" TYPE="CITE">I prophesize (I never prophesy anymore) that if "truthiness" lasts it will come to mean "some degree of truth." Cf. what happened to "factoid," from "erroneous popular assumption" to "fun fact." 
 
 I also prophesize that it won't last except as a joke. 
 
 JL "Sees All, Knows Nothing" 
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