factoid

[Joel S. Berson]

At 11/16/2012 07:44 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >  Back in our old unsophisticated days we used to think that if it wasn't
>true, it wasn't a fact (however trivial it might (not) be.
>
>That *was* a long time ago, wasn't it?
>
>(Don't forget my obsessive-compulsive discussion of current uses of "fact"
>here a few years ago.)
>
>Norman Mailer coined "factoid" in 1973 in the sense of something widely
>accepted as a fact though of dubious or no truthfulness. IIRC, he suggested
>that a steamy affair between Marilyn and JFK would make a great factoid and
>- voila! - it came to pass.
>
>If I'm wrong, please advise. (When I tell people that JFK and MM were never
>an item, they back away like I'm a mental patient released too soon.)

Factoid:  MM and Einstein were an item.
Proof:  Cover photograph of Scientific American (what could be more
truthy than it?) showing them kissing.  (Or Marilyn kissing Albert --
I forget.)

Factoid:  They are really the same person.
Proof:   Scientific American's correction, in "The Eyes Have It":
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-eyes-have-it

Joel


>OED, BTW, doesn't recognize the later (and very common) sense, 'an
>interesting but trivial or irrelevant fact.'
>
>My sense is that it developed very soon after the original.
>
>JL
>
>On Fri, Nov 16, 2012 at 1:29 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> > Subject:      Re: factoid
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > On Nov 15, 2012, at 7:01 PM, Dave Wilton wrote:
> >
> > > Urban dictionary has a decent breakdown of the senses that I've heard:
> > > http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=factoid
> > >
> > > In my experience, their sense #2 is the more common: "A fact that may or
> > may
> > > not be true, but is trivial in nature."
> >
> > Interesting.  Back in our old unsophisticated days we used to think that
> > if it wasn't true, it wasn't a fact (however trivial it might (not) be.
> >
> > LH
> > >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
> > Behalf Of
> > > James Harbeck
> > > Sent: Thursday, November 15, 2012 8:11 PM
> > > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > > Subject: factoid
> > >
> > > I had a debate today about the meaning of "factoid". I'm wondering
> > whether
> > > my sense of what more or less everyone uses it to mean is in fact
> > accurate.
> > > Tell me: what, in your world, does "factoid" mean?
> > >
> > > Thanks,
> > > James Harbeck.
> > >
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> > >
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
>
>--
>"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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