Complete text of my 1997 essay, “Trut: The Star, The Globe, and the Missing H in the New Veracity“
So every once in a while I coin a new term or phrase. No one ever notices a whole lot, as this weblog is not exactly slashdot or metafilter, but the coining continues apace. As far as I know, there’s no buzz ablaze– nobody ever uses them except me. Not exactly an etymological success.
However, one of my fondest dreams is to be mentioned by William Safire as the coiner of a word or phrase. So the only way to do that is to get a mitt and get in the game. Here goes:
TRUT
Trut is the mutable concoction of facts employed for an ulterior purpose. Trut consists of exactly 4/5 of the stuff of truth. Four out of five letters lined up as a reasonable facsimile of truth.
Example
FEMA Director Michael Brown says he was “an assistant city manager with emergency services oversight.” Here’s what TIME Magazine says:
In fact, according to Claudia Deakins, head of public relations for the
city of Edmond, Brown was an “assistant to the city manager” from 1977
to 1980, not a manager himself, and had no authority over other
employees.
Explanation
Brown says he was an assistant city manager, others say he was an assistant to a city manager. Brown wants to make people feel a certain way about him, and he plays with language to do so. “Assistant”, “Assistant to”, what’s the difference?
The difference is just an H. Brown dropped the H from truth and delivered the trut.
Origins
- First publication is in an article I wrote called, “Trut: The Star, The Globe, and the Missing H in the New Veracity” which was first published in Emigre 41, The Magazine Issue (1997)
- Also appeared in my 2003 book, Economics
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