New Words for a New World: "Truthiness is of the upmost importance"

       The word I chose to write about is the term ‘truthiness’. The general definition of this word is a term used to describe things that a person claims to know intuitively or “from the gut” with no regard to evidence, logic, intellectual examination or facts. The types of word formation I believe are at use here are coinage (the invention of a new term) and derivation (the process of forming new words by adding affixes). It is also possible that the process known as analogy applies here; it is close in spelling (and approximate meaning) to the words ‘trustiness’ and ‘truthfulness’. Some of the research I did leads me to believe that neologism plays into this word as well; apparently, the Oxford English Dictionary has a definition for the term ‘truthy’ that dates back to the 1800s, defining it as characterized by truth and with the derivation ‘truthiness’.

       I’ll be honest in saying that I just randomly chose a random word to write about; in thinking about the assignment, it was the first word that popped into my head. The origin of this word, to some people, is often attributed to Stephen Colbert, host of the very popular TV show “The Colbert Report”. In response to the aforementioned Oxford Dictionary definition, which was highlighted in an Associated Press story, Colbert stated that you “don’t look up truthiness in a book, you look it up in your gut”. (Full Disclosure: I do happen to watch the show, so personal views stated here are likely not impartial)