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Ah, the second definition isn't one I've ever seen used? A factoid may be used inappropriately to support an unrelated argument, ("the last pirates were seen in
by civilian 9y ago
Ah, the second definition isn't one I've ever seen used? A factoid may be used inappropriately to support an unrelated argument, ("the last pirates were seen in the 1800s, right as climate change started") but they're still _true_.
- mikeash 9y agoThat's actually the original meaning. "Factoids... that is, 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." The meaning has since mutated, and of course there's no reason we should be constrained to the original.
- emodendroket 9y agoIt's the original and etymologically, it makes more sense, since "-oid" means "resembling." "Humanoids" are not human, for instance. But of course appeals to etymology are not a good way to determine what a word means.