Whether you get your word from television , societal media , or the mouths of politician , the line separating fact and fabrication is sometimes difficult to pin down . This feels specially exact in 2016 , a year whenfake tidings storiesrose to the top of Facebook ’s sheer provender and presidential nominee werefact - checked mid - debate . It ’s fitting then thatpost - truth , defined as “ relating to or denote circumstances in which accusative fact are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeal to emotion and personal belief , ” was recently namedWord of the Yearby Oxford English Dictionaries .
The word is n’t a unexampled invention — according to Oxford , the concept has been around for the past decade or so . But this yr the word skyrocketed to prominence in light of Britain ’s break from the European Union and the presidential election in the U.S. The word is ordinarily hear coupled with the wordpoliticsin headline like : “ Why thepost - verity political eramight be around for a while ” and “ U.S. election campaign marks crushed inpost - the true politics . ”
Stephen Colbert touch on a similar concept when he coined the wordtruthinessin 2005 . That word , which means“believing something is true from the bowel , or inside ; using animation experience of learnings to make something seem true , ” realise the title ofMerriam - Webster ’s Word of the Year in 2006 .
Post - truthwas chosen from a short list of nine other terms considered for the distinction . As you might expect , the pool featured several politically theme entries , includingalt - right(an ideological grouping associated with extreme button-down viewpoints),woke(alert to injustice in guild ) , andBrexiteer(a person who is in favour of the UK withdrawing from the European Union ) . A few of the contenders , likeadulting , hygge , andcoulrophobia(fear of clowns ) , fell on the lite side .
