Word of the Day

[glennagirl.livejournal.com]

THURSDAY, JANUARY 9

Verisimilitude

[ver-ə-sə-MIL-ə-tood]Part of speech: noun

Origin: latin, 16th century

• The appearance of truth or resembling reality
• Something that only appears to be true

Examples of Verisimilitude in a sentence

• The critics panned the new movie as lacking verisimilitude with over-the-top acting.
• Her claim of being 45 years old was verisimilitude — her secret was that she was really 59.

Comments

[pfrye.livejournal.com]

Illya Kuryakin's nickname was "The Ice Prince". It was a believed truth at headquarters that the Russian was cold, unemotional and heartless. He was rumored to be bloodthirsty, lacking in compassion and unfriendly. He was the image of the evil Soviet ready to crush the goodness of the West. These beliefs were only verisimilitude. Illya was actually a sensitive, passionate man with a compassionate nature and a wicked sense of humor.

[vallib53.livejournal.com]

Illya actually used this word in the MFU novel "The Power Cube Affair". Their contact was complaining about the insults that Illya had been throwing her way and he responded. "I too was acting a part. That was merely corroborative detail, intended to lend artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative."
One of my favourite lines, it's stayed in my mind all these years!

[glennagirl.livejournal.com]

Thanks for citing that, it's amazing you've had it in mind all of these years.

[vallib53.livejournal.com]

I had to peep at my copy to make sure I used the exact wording but it was one of those little things that amused me and stuck.