Buzz
When Norman Mailer first introduced the word factoid in his 1973 biography of Marilyn Monroe, he also conveniently defined it. Factoids, he described, were 'facts that only come into existence when printed in a magazine or newspaper, creations that are not lies, but tools to sway the emotions of the Silent Majority.'
In essence, factoids were an early form of fake news: misleading snippets that seemed plausible, making people believe them as if they were factual. This original interpretation, which Mailer likely coined, aligns with the meaning of the suffix -oid. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, -oid is often used in science to denote 'something that has the form or appearance of, something related but not identical to' its root word. For instance, the word humanoid could describe beings like Bigfoot or C-3PO from Star Wars—they resemble humans but aren't exactly human themselves.
As time went on, and the demand for fun facts grew—through fact-a-day calendars, trivia nights, Jeopardy!, and the like—people began using the word factoid to mean 'a small or insignificant piece of information.' According to Merriam-Webster, the shift might have occurred because we didn’t have a good alternative for trivial fact. Some have suggested the term factlet, using the suffix -let to signify 'small,' but neither Merriam-Webster nor the Oxford English Dictionary has officially added it to their entries (likely because it isn’t commonly used).
The definition of the word factoid is currently a point of contention between linguistic prescriptivists and descriptivists. Prescriptivists argue that only Mailer’s original definition holds true, while descriptivists believe the definition should evolve to match how people are using the word today. For reference, both Merriam-Webster and the Oxford English Dictionary include both interpretations.
So, if someone shares a factoid with you, it might be worth asking how they personally define the term before accepting it as a genuine fact.
