Do you watch “The Colbert Report?” If you do then you may be familiar with the following words: “Truthiness” and “Wikiality.” The show’s host, political satirist, Stephen Colbert, uses both words quite frequently. So, much so that they were named two of the “top television buzzwords of the year” by the word-trend group Global Language Monitor.
Each year the group compiles a list of words used on television that has made an impact on our language. For example, according to Global Language Monitor the word (or name) “Katrina” now refers to continuing news coverage about the hurricane’s destruction. The word “Katie” is no longer just a name; rather it refers to “Katie Couric’s move into the nightly news anchor chair at CBS.” Let’s try it in a sentence, shall we? If my friend were to score a major promotion at work I would say: “Congrats! So does your ‘Katie’ mean you will be getting a corner office?”
Another buzzword making the list—“Dr. McDreamy”—in honor of a character on the popular primetime drama Grey’s Anatomy. How could you use this one in conversation? Well, if a “dreamboat” physician attended to you in the emergency room, you could brag to your friends that you had an encounter with “Dr. McDreamy.”
As for Colbert’s words, Global Language Monitor defined “Truthiness” as used by the TV show host as meaning “truth unencumbered by the facts.” Meanwhile, “Wikiality,” which was derived from the information website Wikipedia is defined as “reality as determined by majority vote, as when astronomers voted Pluto off their list of planets last week.”
The president of Global Language Monitor (a company which says was designed to “analyze trends in word usage and their impact on various aspects of culture”) told reporters: “Some of these buzzwords will quickly pass while others will be embedded in the language for years to come.”
I think “Katrina” will be around for a while. I’m not so sure about “Truthiness.” What do you think?