Los Angeles: "Truthiness, " "Wikiality" Named TV Words of Year

[Harold F. Schiffman]

>>From the NYTimes, August 27, 2006

"Truthiness, " "Wikiality" Named TV Words of Year

By REUTERS
Filed at 12:50 p.m. ET

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - ``Truthiness'' and ``Wikiality'' -- two of the
words popularized by political satirist Stephen Colbert on his TV show
``The Colbert Report''-- were named on Sunday the top television buzzwords
of the year. The word-trend group Global Language Monitor, in its annual
survey of words from television that had an impact on the language, also
cited the words ``Katrina,'' referring to continuing stories about the
hurricane's destruction; ``Katie,'' a reference to Katie Couric's move
into the nightly news anchor role at CBS News; and ``Dr. McDreamy,'' a nod
to a character on the breakout hit ``Grey's Anatomy.'' The doctor is
played by Patrick Dempsey and follows in a long line of television
``dreamboat'' physicians.

The survey was released to coincide with Sunday night night's presentation
of the Emmy Awards, American television's highest honors. Global Language
Monitor defined ``truthiness'' as used by Colbert as meaning ``truth
unencumbered by the facts.'' ''Wikiality,'' derived from the user-compiled
Wikipeida information Web site, was defined as ``reality as determined by
majority vote,'' as when astronomers voted Pluto off their list of planets
last week. Paul JJ Payack, president of the Global Language Monitor, said,
``Some of these buzzwords will quickly pass while others will be embedded
in the language for years to come. Global Language Monitor analyzes trends
in word usage and word choices and their impact on the various aspects of
culture.

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/arts/entertainment-emmys-words.html

   **************************************************************************

N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members
and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of
the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a
message are encouraged to post a rebuttal.

   **************************************************************************