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I stumbled upon the English term Truthiness

"truth" that a person claims to know intuitively "from the gut" in that it "feels right" without regard to evidence, logic, intellectual examination, or facts

I like this word very much, especially in the context of conspiracy theories.

In German you would use diminutive suffixes to minimize/belittle a word, a subjective opinion with a little bit feeled truth in it.

What spanish suffixes would you use for verdad to build the counterpart. I only know there are different suffixes for different word-endings. Please explain also if/how phonetic (maybe dialects - works well in German) reasons would influence your choice, so it doesn't sound too artificial.

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  • Can you intimidate a word?
    – Dr. belisarius
    Commented Nov 27, 2011 at 19:41
  • Instead of using some artificial construct, in this concrete case, I would suggest using certeza: certeza. (De cierto). 1. f. Conocimiento seguro y claro de algo. 2. f. Firme adhesión de la mente a algo conocible, sin temor de errar.
    – Gonzalo Medina
    Commented Nov 27, 2011 at 21:50
  • @belisarius removed it, was given out as synonym for belittle in a dictionary
    – Hauser
    Commented Nov 28, 2011 at 12:31
  • This question seems subjective to me. Is it asked how each of us would invent such a new word if we had to, or is it asking if there is one right way to invent new words in Spanish using this as an example?
    – hippietrail
    Commented Nov 28, 2011 at 16:05

2 Answers 2

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The proper way to say it is the following:

Veracidad

As kevin said his examples are very good. But I am afraid that verdaderosidad does not exist or certizidad or veracecinidad. The proper word is veracidad even if no so fancy as the invented versions.

As gonzalo said per comments, certeza is a good alternative. The problem is that in Spanish we don't have a exact translation for a word such as Truthiness. Truthiness means something that has the quality of seeming or being felt as true but is not necessarily true.

Now a word that can express the exact meaning of truthiness would be intuición but that means something that slightly diverges from the meaning. But essentially means the same.

Intuición is something someone feels that is true, but cannot be certain it is. So you can slightly change context to use it and make the communication of the meaning you want, effective.

Verosímil seems to express the exact meaning correctly. Or at least very close to it. As Juan Pablo pointed out. Check it out on the RAE.

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    That's a real word, though, and truthiness is not really a word (or if it is, it's a coinage). The invented aspect of it is lost in translation if a word that isn't slightly made-up is used in Spanish, and I think in this particular case it's a big loss. Also, the difference between truthiness and intuition is that truthiness implies a certain dislike for the right answer; the person just wants to believe what they believe whether it's right or not. Intuition implies that they do want the right answer but arrive at it differently.
    – Kevin K.
    Commented Nov 28, 2011 at 0:45
  • Truthiness is really a word. It may be a big loss but the important thing here is that no one will understand what you mean if you say "verdaderosidad" or "certizidad" They will most likely look at you as if you are some extraterrestrial creature. I can guarantee that. In any case each language has its own ways to express an idea, not everything can be exactly translated, as I am sure there are some spanish expressions that can't be translated into english. Intuition and truthiness are different of course, but using intuición to translate truthiness is the closest you can get to the meaning.
    – Jose Luis
    Commented Nov 28, 2011 at 6:52
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    I wasn't sure if he was asking for his own curiosity or for a real translation. If it's for a real one, then yeah, compromises will have to be made and the result won't really convey the meaning. Maybe it needs several words, like verdad del estómago or something :P
    – Kevin K.
    Commented Nov 28, 2011 at 7:06
  • +1 hahaha verdad del estómago is a good one
    – Jose Luis
    Commented Nov 28, 2011 at 7:08
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    @Joze. "Verosímil" fits this definition quite well: "something that has the quality of seeming or being felt as true but is not necessarily true".
    – Juan Pablo Califano
    Commented Jun 15, 2012 at 21:56
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Colbert Report fan, eh?

This is a tough one. I looked to color words, many of which have an -ish equivalent, which is what we're looking for here.

We have:

rojizo - reddish

blanquizo/blanquecino/blancuzco - whitish

azulado - bluish

verdoso - greenish

negruzco - blackish

amarillente/amarilloso - yellowish

I don't know the technical name of the language feature, but you can see there are a variety of ways to make an adjective vague, and it depends on the structure of the word.

True can be verdadero or cierto, although truth is verdad.

Having said all that...how about verdaderosidad or certizidad? Maybe even veracecinidad (from veraz -> veracecino).

I like verdaderoisdad the most even if it's a bit long. It gives it that essential silly element.

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  • Verdaderoisdad is quite good! It has the right amount of cynicism/fun.
    – Dr. belisarius
    Commented Nov 27, 2011 at 21:56
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    BTW I always heard "amarillento"
    – Dr. belisarius
    Commented Nov 27, 2011 at 21:58
  • stop creating words lol
    – Leandro Bardelli
    Commented Jun 26, 2012 at 15:26

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