The Meaning of Truthiness

[Dave Wilton]

No, you haven't misapprehended it at all. Your definition is correct and
Shuy's is incorrect. Shuy is defining "disingenuity."

As Colbert said, "You don't look up truthiness in a book, you look it up in
your gut."

--Dave Wilton
  dave at wilton.net

-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
Baker, John
Sent: Thursday, September 07, 2006 5:18 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: The Meaning of Truthiness

        One of the reasons I don't like "truthiness" as a WOTY is that I
don't know what it means.  I had taken it to mean supposed higher truths
that are contrary to mere facts, examples of which would be pretty much
any statements on Iraq by the current administration.  But Roger Shuy in
Language Log,
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003557.html,
suggests that it can refer to "truth that is, well, true, but not
exactly what the listener or reader thought."  His examples include a
witness who chose to interpret "you" to mean his company rather than
himself and a humorous video for a "Topless Car Wash" where the car
washers turn out to be topless fat men.

        But these are really statements that are facty, not truthy, and
therefore the opposite of truthiness:  They are factually accurate but
misleadingly fail to convey the whole truth.  Or have I misapprehended
the greater truth about truthiness?


John Baker

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