False facts on Visual Thesaurus

[Neal Whitman]

By subscription, my column at Visual Thesaurus on "false facts" (and true ones, too):
http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/true-facts-and-false-facts/

From the column, a 1688 attestation of "false fact":

Or, suppose the Judges were corrupt; and directed false Law, or false Fact, or overawed the Jury; or admitted a Party to be a Witness, or Juror (as in Effect it was); That was enough to render the Verdict corrupt….

Also a discussion of an entry in the alt.usage.english FAQ, which argues that "false fact" is no more contradictory than "false teeth". My rebuttal: unlike "fake", "false" has a different meaning when applied to nouns denoting a proposition. E.g. a false claim is not something that appears to be a claim but is really a question or command; it's a claim denoting a proposition that is false.

Neal

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com>
> Date: July 30, 2013 12:20:05 AM EDT
> To: Neal Whitman <nwhitman at ameritech.net>
> Subject: Re: False facts followup
> 
> And here it is...
> 
> http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/true-facts-and-false-facts/
> 
> Thanks,
> Ben
> 
> 
> 
> On Thu, Jul 25, 2013 at 11:39 AM, Neal Whitman <nwhitman at ameritech.net> wrote:
> OK, thanks for the update.
> 
> Neal
> 
> On 7/25/2013 12:28 AM, Ben Zimmer wrote:
>> We'll run it next week -- most likely Tuesday.
>> 
>> Best,
>> Ben
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On Thu, Jul 25, 2013 at 12:21 AM, Neal Whitman <nwhitman at ameritech.net> wrote:
>> Hi Ben,
>> 
>> Any verdict on the false facts column?
>> 
>> Neal
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> -- 
>> Ben Zimmer
>> http://benzimmer.com/
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Ben Zimmer
> http://benzimmer.com/

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