Hacker News Reader

Comment by Terr_ | Hacker News Reader

"Correctly"/traditonally speaking, "factoid" does not mean "small fact".

It actually means something that appears to be a fact, but is not. For example, the statement that "Lightning never strikes twice in the same place."

Interestingly, the phrase "A factoid is a small fact" is a factoid... regardless of whether you use the slang definition or not.

View on HN

Upvote, because correct and precise language matters.

The -oid suffix means 'having the form or likeness of'.

Androids are not small men.

"Correctness" is determined by usage, and in this case usage has decided that "Factoid" means small fact. If you use it in any other way, people will misunderstand you, which is an impediment to comprehension. Explaining yourself is an impediment to having an actual conversation, as it derails the conversation.

Usage is floating and amenable to change. At some point usage was different from what you claim it is now (do you have sources to back that up, btw?). The "small fact" people sure didn't let 'em stop that from using the word wrongly (at that point of time, at least, "small fact" was wrong according to your definition, also).

Edit: I checked the Merriam-Webster, and there at least the classic definition is listed as the primary meaning. The alleged "current use" is listed as secondary. I think we can agree your claim to be a factoid - we just can't agree on what that means! :)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com