• Thorny_Insight@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Factoid

    A piece of unverified or inaccurate information that is presented in the press as factual, often as part of a publicity effort, and that is then accepted as true because of frequent repetition.

    After I heard even Sam Harris misuse this word I just accepted it is now a synonym for a fact despite that the original meaning is the exact opposite.

      • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        I’d say definitions are “unverified” given there’s no definition of true or false for one. By the commutative property of isness, that means definitions are factoids and we can eliminate one of the words.

        See? We’re making plusforward here. Red commits are better than green commits. That oughta be the first definition in the dictionary imo.

    • Perfide@reddthat.com
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      1 year ago

      You could almost say the evolving definition of factoid is in of itself an example of the original definition of a factoid.