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Random info - a factoid originally meant "a piece of information that becomes accepted as a fact even though it is not actually true", when it was coined a few
by AnonFounders 6y ago
Random info - a factoid originally meant "a piece of information that becomes accepted as a fact even though it is not actually true", when it was coined a few decades ago.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factoid https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factoid
Of course, like "Literally" & "Decimated", the accepting meaning has drifted since then...
- gfody 6y agoWeird that wiki doesn’t mention that it’s just the -oid suffix for “like” the same way we can call a non-square box a cuboid. The rest seems suspect eg anyone could’ve coined it.
- jcahill 6y agoWell, almost anyone. If the Progenitors had been startup devs we'd probably be approximately spherical meeple in a webgl tarski's world with "facty" and "fucky" truth values.
- mech422 6y agofor 'decimated' are you talking about the change from 1 in 10, or something more recent I missed ? "Literally" is literally my biggest pet peeve. Changing from 2 spaces to 1 at the end of sentences is another.
- sgerenser 6y ago1 space after a period has always been correct unless you’re writing in a monospaced font (or with a typewriter).
- mech422 6y agoexactly - 2 spaces was correct for anyone that learned to type before say y2k. Back when typing actually involved a typewriter :-)
- PostThisTooFast 6y agoSo... correct since the ‘90s. Got it.
- jacoblambda 6y agoHow has decimated changed in meaning? Decimated comes from the Roman military punishment "Decimation" where for some military unit being punished, 10% of their ranks were to executed by their colleagues. The most literal meaning of decimated is "to reduce by 10%" but the common meaning is from the complete and total destruction of morale and resistance that results from being forced to kill your colleagues.
- crowbahr 6y agoIf you told the average American "We decimated the Iraqi army" they'd think America wiped them out entirely. Or at least 50%. Which is why the modern 1st definition is: > "kill, destroy, or remove a large percentage or part of."