Los Angeles: ‘Wikiality’ and ‘Truthiness’ — two of the words popularised by political satirist Stephen Colbert on his television 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'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 Wikipedia information website, was defined as ‘reality as determined by majority vote’, as when astronomers voted Pluto off their list of planets last week.
President of the Global Language Monitor, Paul J J Payack, said, "Some of these buzzwords will quickly pass while others will be embedded in the language for years to come.”
Global Language Monitor analyses trends in word usage and word choices and their impact on the various aspects of culture.
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