3 ms·
A "factoid" is not a "small fact", it is "something that looks like a fact" (cf. 'android' or 'humanoid'). A better word for this kind of small fact would be "f
by milliams 3y ago
A "factoid" is not a "small fact", it is "something that looks like a fact" (cf. 'android' or 'humanoid'). A better word for this kind of small fact would be "factlet".
- ergonaught 3y agoThe other definition of "factoid" (OED's "brief or trivial piece of information, esp. any of a list of such items presented together") is literally the only usage I have encountered for the word in the past 40 years.
- g4zj 3y agoOr simply "fact".
- forgotmyinfo 3y agoUnfortunately, language is fluid and changing. You can try to hang on by your fingernails, or you can go with the flow.
- card_zero 3y agoOr fight back! Sometimes successfully. Popular usage is not immune to deliberate attempts to change (or freeze) the language. Prescriptivism is thus a subset of descriptivism.
- Electricniko 3y agoYou factist!
- k4rli 3y agoYour entitled to you're own opinion. So if the majority use the language in the wrong way, language itself is the problem?
- owisd 3y agoasteroid - something that looks like a star, rule checks out.