We did it, Colbert Nation! Merriam Webster has picked “Truthiness” to be the Word of the Year! According to the AP News Service, the Merriam Wester web site received “tens of thousands of responses from people who answered the question, ‘What word do you think sums up the year?’ ” and won by a five-to-one margin!

Stephen had this to say about his most recent honor:

“Though I’m no fan of reference books and their fact-based agendas, I am a fan of anyone who chooses to honor me,” he said in a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press. “And what an honor. Truthiness now joins the lexicographical pantheon with words like `squash,’ `merry,’ `crumpet,’ `the,’ `xylophone,’ `circuitous,’ `others,’ and others.”

The official word definition, according to Merriam-Webster, is:

1. truthiness (noun)
1 : “truth that comes from the gut, not books” (Stephen Colbert, Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report,” October 2005)
2 : “the quality of preferring concepts or facts one wishes to be true, rather than concepts or facts known to be true” (American Dialect Society, January 2006)

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