Birth of a nova--not?

[Alice Faber]

I've been pondering this for a day now (after having been slammed for my
inability to pronounce a word that's been part of my passive vocabulary
for 40 years!). TRUTHINESS, as it was defined at the WOTY session, and,
as I've seen it used since, is *not* the same thing as VERISIMILITUDE.
VERISIMILITUDE is, to me, a literary quality, while TRUTHINESS is a
quality of political rhetoric.

As for the pronunciation difficulties, it's the stress pattern. The
similarities with VERitable lead me to VERisimilitude, which has too
many unstressed syllables in sequence. The alternative, verisiMIlitude
suffers from a similar problem.

James Smith wrote:
> I was skeptical when I first saw TRUTHINESS was the
> WOTY, but I am coming to like it.
>
> I understand VERISIMILITUDE as fiction created with
> the appearance of truth.  TRUTHINESS strikes me as
> truth diluted with fiction, yet maintaining the
> overall appearance of truth.
>
>
>
> --- Brenda Lester <alphatwin2002 at YAHOO.COM> wrote:
>
>
>>I agree. Waited for back-up.
>>
>>
>>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.
>>
>>There is an old word for what Frey did:
>>VERISIMILITUDE. Come to think of it,
>>that is pretty much what TRUTHINESS means (though
>>admittedly not totally).
>>
>>I am skeptical about predicitions that TRUTHINESS
>>has much of a future. Not
>>only is it doing the same work as VERISIMILITUDE,
>>but it is not all that easy
>>to recognize it morphosemantically as distinct from
>>TRUTHFULNESS or
>>TRUENESS--this is why so many people intitially
>>reacted to it as a silly word: they saw
>>it as a mere (pretentious) variant of one of those
>>established words. If
>>HAPPINESS means 'the state of being happy' and
>>SILLINESS means 'the condition of
>>being silly' and RANDINESS means 'the state of being
>>RANDY' then why should
>>TRUTHINESS mean 'the condition of SEEMING true'? I
>>realize that TRUTHINESS is
>>derived from TRUTHY 'truth-like', but TRUTHY is
>>itself not a "real" word,   and the
>>"-Y" suffix is so ambiguous, that the connection
>>between TRUTHINESS and
>>TRUTHY is opaque.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>>On the issue of Frey, it is interesting to see
>>
>>that Allan has adopted the
>>
>>>language of the media--"admitted" and
>>
>>"embellished"--in referring to Frey's
>>
>>>really splendid book on addiction and
>>
>>rehabilitation. These words both imply
>>
>>>that Frey did something wrong in adding
>>
>>fictionalized details to his "memoir,"
>>
>>>a genre that goes back to the 16th century at
>>
>>least and that is not the same
>>
>>>thing as an autobiography, in which one expects
>>
>>literal truth. If the author
>>
>>>of the 18th Century "memoir," FANNY HILL really
>>
>>did all the things that Fanny
>>
>>>says she did, then the 18th Century was a lot more
>>
>>queer than anyone ever
>>
>>>thought.
>>>
>>



--
 =============================================================================
Alice Faber                                    faber at haskins.yale.edu
Haskins Laboratories                           tel: (203) 865-6163 x258
New Haven, CT 06511 USA                        fax (203) 865-8963

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