Merriam-Webster's word of the year: Truthiness!

Okay, who didn't see this coming? When Merriam-Webster announced that their hallowed Word of the Year rankings would be determined this year, it was pretty clear that Comedy Central host Stephen Colbert and his loyal fans would find some way to weasel into it. Indeed, as the dictionary publisher announced Saturday, the Word of the Year for 2006 is the Colbert invention "truthiness." The #2 spot was held by "google," which will probably tick off a few tech execs in Mountain View, California.

I will admit, however, that I wasn't entirely positive that Colbert would come out on top. My guess for the top spot had been the George Allen-coined gem which ultimately failed to make it to the list.

It's like a law now. Any time there's a well-publicized online poll for anything these days, Stephen Colbert's army of near-zombie followers will turn it into yet another way to exalt their leader. (Even was no match for the "Colbert Report" host.) In fact, it's a wonder that the Colbert Nation hasn't been responsible for any actual distributed denial-of-service attacks yet.

Hm, maybe I shouldn't have said that.