A factoid is a brief, trivial piece of information, or an invented fact believed to be true because it appeared in print. The term was coined by Norman Mailer in 1973, using the '-oid' suffix (appearance) to indicate something that seems factual but isn't, though its usage has evolved to refer to actual but little-known facts.
Un factoid es un dato breve y trivial, o un hecho inventado que se cree cierto por haber sido impreso. El término fue acuñado por Norman Mailer en 1973, usando el sufijo '-oid' (apariencia) para indicar algo que parece un hecho pero no lo es, aunque su uso ha evolucionado para referirse a hechos reales pero poco conocidos.
| Word | factoid |
|---|---|
| Date | April 23, 2017 |
| Type | noun |
| Syllables | FAK-toyd |
| Etymology | We can thank Norman Mailer for the word factoid; he coined the term in his 1973 book Marilyn, about Marilyn Monroe. In the book, Mailer explains that factoids are "facts which have no existence before appearing in a magazine or newspaper, creations which are not so much lies as a product to manipulate emotion in the Silent Majority." Mailer's use of the -oid suffix (which traces back to the ancient Greek word eidos, meaning "appearance" or "form") follows in the pattern of humanoid: just as a humanoid appears to be human but is not, so a factoid appears to be factual but is not. Mailer likely did not appreciate the word's evolution. As current evidence demonstrates, it now most often refers to things that decidedly are facts, just not ones we tend to pay much attention to. |
| Examples | Printed on the back of each baseball card is a chart showing the player's statistics along with one or two interesting factoids about his career. "Diana, the manager, took us through the intricacies of coffee roasting, providing us with interesting factoids such as that lava from the volcanoes results in excellent soil for coffee growing, and the darker the coffee bean, the less caffeine it has." — Patti Nickell, The Lexington (Kentucky) Herald Leader, 17 Feb. 2017 |
| Definition | 1 : an invented fact believed to be true because of its appearance in print 2 : a briefly stated and usually trivial fact |
Tags: wordoftheday::noun
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