When Norman Mailer usedfactoidin his 1973 biography ofMarilyn Monroe — the first known written example of the word — he conveniently include its definition , too . Factoids , he explained , were “ facts which have no beingness before look in a magazine or newspaper , creations which are not so much Trygve Halvden Lie as a product to manipulate emotion in the Silent Majority . ”
In other words , factoid were an former adaptation of fake news : erroneous tidbit that citizenry believed because they seemed like they could be fact . This interpretation of the term , which Mailer may have strike himself , matches the meaning of the postfix - oid . Asexplainedin the Oxford English Dictionary,-oidis unremarkably used in skill to denote “ something get the form or appearing of , something bear on or ally in bodily structure , but not identical ” to its root news . You might apply the wordhumanoid , for lesson , to describeBigfootorStar Wars’sC-3PO ; both resemble mankind , but they ’re not in reality human .
Over clock time , as bon ton developed an insatiate appetite forfun factsin every form — fact - a - twenty-four hour period calendars , trivia nights , Jeopardy ! , etc.—people started co - prefer the wordfactoidto intend “ a brief or trivial bit of info . ”According to Merriam - Webster , a potential reason for this shift key might be that we just do n’t have a good terminal figure fortrivial fact . Some havefloatedfactletas an choice , since the suffix - letessentiallymeanslittle , but neither Merriam - Webster nor the Oxford English Dictionary has devote it an official entry ( perhaps because few people actually practice the word ) .
At this spot , the definition of the wordfactoidis an on-going debate betweenlinguisticprescriptivists and descriptivists . The former believe only Mailer ’s original definition is correct , while the latter think the definition should reflect how hoi polloi currently use the word . For the criminal record , Merriam - Websterand theOxford English Dictionarylist both definitions .
But if someone say you a factoid , you might require to ask how they personally define the term before you consent their factoid as fact .
Have you got a Big interrogative sentence you ’d like us to do ? If so , let us acknowledge by emailing us atbigquestions@mentalfloss.com .
