English

Noun

truthiness ‎(uncountable)

1. (rare, archaic) Truthfulness. [from 19th c.]
   • 1824, Gurney, Joseph John, “Amelia Opie”, in Memoirs of Joseph John Gurney, volume 1, Norwich: Fletcher and Alexander, published 1854, OL 23318618M, page 242:

     Truly may it be said, that her valuable qualities have been sanctified ; whilst her play of character has not been lost, but has been rendered more interesting than before. Every one who knows her is aware of her truthiness, and appreciates her kindness ; […]

2. (US, colloquial) Superficial or asserted truthfulness, without recourse to evidence. [from 21st c.]
   • 2005, Stephen Colbert, The Colbert Report, 17 Oct 2005, (transcription):

     'Cause you're looking at a straight-shooter, America. I tell it like it is. I calls 'em like I sees 'em. I will speak to you in plain simple English. And that brings us to tonight's word: truthiness.

   • 2006 August/September, “Immigration now, immigration tomorrow, immigration forever: reason's guide to reality-based reform”, in Reason, Reason Foundation, ISSN 0048-6906:

     Even in the halls of Congress, economic arguments against immigration are losing their aura of truthiness, so pro-enforcement types are focusing on national security.

   • 2013, Mary Roach, chapter 8, in Gulp:

     Like the contemporary urban myth, tales of stomach frogs and "bosom serpents" persisted because they have truthiness.

3. (computing, programming) The property of being truthy, i.e. evaluating to true in a Boolean context.

Quotations

• For more examples of usage of this term, see Citations:truthiness.

Synonyms

• (quality of seemingly true): truthlikeness, verisimilitude

Translations

Related terms

• untruthiness

See also

• cognitive dissonance
• cognitive relativism
• Appendix:American Dialect Society words of the year

References

• James A. H. Murray [et al.], editor (1884–1928) A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), London: Clarendon Press, OCLC 15566697; and The Oxford English Dictionary; being a Corrected Re-issue with an Introduction, Supplement, and Bibliography of A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (the First Supplement), Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1933, OCLC 2748467.

External links

• truthiness on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• American Dialect Society's Word of the Year (2005)