Stephen Colbert can now add 'linguist' to his resume. His "truthiness" was awarded word of the year by the American Dialect Society. Defined as "the quality of stating concepts or facts one wishes or believes to be true, rather than concepts or facts known to be true," truthiness was not in fact coined by Colbert, but definitely reinvented. One example of truthiness might be Gothamist's publication of Donald Trump as a sperm freezing, propecia doused publicity whore...sort of true, but not proven. Colbert used "truthiness" back in October 2005 and many news venues reported on it then, including Oprah and Nightline. The NY Times reported on Colbert's "truthiness" as well, though they referred to it as "trustiness." Colbert's response? "Trustiness isn't even a word."
The American Dialect Society reviewed a whole batch of spankin' new vocabulary (warning: pdf link). Here are a few that Gothamist is definitely adding to its lexicon:
'muffin top'- the bulge of flesh hanging over the top of low-rider jeans
'Cruisazy'-crazy in the manner of Tom Cruise
'Ex-Lax option'-nuclear option; immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq
Gothamist wants to be the first to nominate Jake Dobkin's 'lactarded' for next year's review. Got any suggestions of your own? And bonus points for anybody who can use 'muffin top', 'Cruisazy' and 'Ex-Lax option' in a single sentence.
