least likely to succeed? really?

[ronbutters at AOL.COM]

OK, thanks for the data. Maybe "most unnecessary" would have been a better choice. But I do see now that people are sometimes using TRUTHINESS as something other than a stunt word. See, for example, <http://gawker.com/5407316/palins-camp-fights-back-over-accusations-of-truthiness-in-going-rogue>.  Maybe ADS+Merriam+Colbert were actually successful in adding the word to commonplace vocabulary.
------Original Message------
From: Benjamin Zimmer
Sender: ADS-L
To: ADS-L
ReplyTo: ADS-L
Subject: Re: [ADS-L] least likely to succeed? really?
Sent: Jan 9, 2010 9:13 AM

On Sat, Jan 9, 2010 at 8:48 AM,  <ronbutters at aol.com> wrote:
>
> I agree with Larry that the results with respect to "least likely to succeed" are
> ridiculous.  But recall "Bush lips" and "truthiness" and a host of other "words"
>  that the Circus in past years recognized as winners for various categories,
> all of which would have done best as "least likely to succeed."  This year's
> choices were generally no sillier than those of other years--and equally
> forgettable.

I know Ron is no fan of "truthiness", but it has in fact shown some
staying power since '05. A check on Google News shows 46 news articles
using "truthiness" in the last month alone:

http://news.google.com/news/search?q=truthiness

That's more than can be said for, say, "plutoed", which only shows up
in articles about ADS WOTY. :->


--Ben Zimmer

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