Definition:
A person's account of an event or state of affairs.
Etymology:
From the Latin, "witness"Examples and Observations:
- "Four out of five dentists surveyed recommend Trident sugarless gum for their patients who chew gum!"
(advertising claim made by Trident chewing gum) - "No wonder so many doctors now smoke and recommend King-Size Viceroys."
(advertising claim made in the 1950s by Viceroy cigarettes) - "Cicero stated that all extrinsic proofs rely chiefly upon the authority granted by the community to those who make them (Topics IV 24). In other words, Cicero defined all extrinsic proof as testimony. In keeping with Cicero's remark, we might argue that facts are a kind of testimony, since their accuracy depends upon the care taken by the person who establishes them as facts and upon his reputation in relevant communities, as well."
(Sharon Crowley and Debra Hawhee, Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students, Pearson, 2004) - "On August 6, 2001, over a month before 9/11, during the 'summer of threat,' President Bush received a Presidential Daily Briefing (PDB) at his Crawford, Texas ranch indicating that bin Laden might be planning to hijack commercial airliners. The memo was entitled 'Bin Laden Determined to Strike inside US,' and the entire memo focused on the possibility of terrorist attacks inside the US. In testimony before the 9/11 Commission, Condoleezza Rice, National Security Advisor to President Bush, stated to the commission that she and Bush considered the August 6th PDB as just an 'historical document' and stated that it was not considered a 'warning.'"
(D. Lindley Young, The Modern Tribune, April 8, 2004) - "One of the Soviet Georgia's senior citizens thought Dannon was an excellent yogurt. She ought to know. She's been eating yogurt for 137 years."
(Advertising campaign for Dannon Yogurt)
Pronunciation: TES-ti-MON-ee
