New light on "truthiness"

[Jesse Sheidlower]

On Mon, Jan 16, 2006 at 01:07:20PM -0500, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
> I just wrote up a Lang Log post on our old friend "truthiness" as it
> appears in the work cited by OED, _The Memoirs of Joseph John Gurney_
> (Joseph Bevan Braithwaite, 1854):
>
> http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002764.html
>
> OED has apparently erred in giving a date of 1824-- on closer
> inspection, the cite provided actually looks to be from 1837. Also,
> Gurney used the word again in 1844. But I can't find any other
> pre-Colbert uses in print. Can anyone find other attestations?

The Century Dictionary has an entry for it (calling it "rare"),
and cites an 1832 source.

http://www.leoyan.com/century-dictionary.com/cent2jpgframes.php?volno=08&page=6514

accessed from http://www.global-language.com/CENTURY/

Jesse Sheidlower
OED

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