veridical
adjective

- showing what is true or real

- corresponding to facts; not illusory; real; actual; genuine

Cambridge Dictionary, Dictionary(dot)com

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WORD ORIGIN

The word ”veridical” has an interesting etymology rooted in the Latin word veridicus, which is composed of two parts: verus meaning ”true” and dicere meaning ”to speak” or ”to say”. So literally, ”veridical” means ”speaking truth” or ”truth-telling”.

The word entered the English language around the 1650s, very likely based on the French word véridique.

“Veridical” is related to several other words in English that share the same Latin roots: “verify” (to prove true), “verdict” (literally true-saying), “verily” (meaning truthfully), and “veracious” (truthful).

In modern usage, ”veridical” typically means ”truthful” or ”corresponding to facts”. In psychology and philosophy, it's often used to describe perceptions or experiences that accurately represent reality.

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THE ILLUSION OF TRUTH

Discerning fact from fiction has become increasingly challenging because of:

- Biased Research & Reporting, in times of "political correctness", many news channels—even science and academia—have become unreliable sources of veridical information.

- Fake News, facilitated by social media, partisan outlets, and bad actors.

- Deepfakes & Advanced Digital Manipulation, technological advancements in artificial intelligence and digital editing have made it increasingly difficult to distinguish between real and manipulated content. Deepfakes can create highly realistic videos and audio recordings that convincingly mimic real people, spreading misinformation and creating false narratives.

- Cognitive Biases, such as confirmation bias, lead us to favour information that confirms our existing beliefs, while dismissing contradictory evidence.

- False Memories, where our brains create or alter recollections of past events.

Our own approach involves following a few “trusted” channels and cross-referencing multiple sources,… and above all staying agnostic, there’s always a possibility (however slight) of new evidence upsetting established “facts”!

How do you keep up-to-date and stay grounded?

Helga & Paul Smith   paul(at)owad(dot)de

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SYNONYMS

accurate, actual, all there, authentic, beyond doubt, bona fide, clear-cut, coin of the realm, confirmed, correct, dead-on, demonstrable, factual, faithful, for real, genuine, gospel truth, hard fact, holds water, honest-to-goodness, incontestable, incontrovertible, indisputable, irrefutable, just so, legitimate, like it is, litmus test, nailed down, no bull, no joke, no lie, on the level, on the money, on the nose, open and shut, pass muster, plain dealing, proven, real deal, real McCoy, right as rain, right on, ringing true, spot-on, straight from the horse's mouth, straight goods, straight shooting, substantiated, sure as shootin', telling it like it is, the God's honest truth, the real article, true blue, unassailable, unbiased, uncoloured, uncontrovertible, undeniable, undisputable, unequivocal, unerring, unexaggerated, unfeigned, unimpeachable, unquestionable, unvarnished, valid, veracious, VERIDICAL, verifiable, verified, well-founded, what you see is what there is, watertight, without a doubt

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SMUGGLE OWAD into a sentence, say something like:

“The information presented in the report was VERIDICAL and reliable.”

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Why Support OWAD?

On evenings and weekends, I research and write your daily OWAD newsletter together with Helga (my lovely wife and business partner) and our eagle-eyed daughter Jennifer. It remains FREE, AD-FREE, and ALIVE thanks to voluntary donations from appreciative readers.

If you aren’t already, please consider supporting us — even a small donation, equivalent to just 1-cup-of-coffee a month, would help us in covering expenses for mailing, site-hosting, maintenance, and service.

Just head over to DonorBox:
https://donorbox.org/owad-q4-2023-5

or

Bank transfer:
Paul Smith
IBAN: DE75 7316 0000 0002 5477 40

Important: please state as ’Verwendungszweck’: “OWAD donation” and the email address used to subscribe to OWAD.

Thanks so much,

Paul
(OWAD-Founder)