You are right, I hate that phrase too. Unfortunately it's pretty widespread. From my Collins Cobuild 5 dictionary: "When you refer to something as a fact or as

You are right, I hate that phrase too. Unfortunately it's pretty widespread. From my Collins Cobuild 5 dictionary: "When you refer to something as a fact or as fact, you mean that you think it is true or correct." See also: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/fact http://www.thefreedictionary.com/fact Although, the Wikipedia disagrees: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fact#Etymology_and_usage http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fact#Etymology_and_usage