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wanderingstan | 2 months ago

Related self promotion: this factoid about spaces, along with other fun slices in the evolution of writing, features in my decade-ago Ignite talk “For the love of letters”

https://youtu.be/g1Rko-LG6aY?si=SbLDRnORPnKiXCxu

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Terr_|2 months ago

Since we're already being picky about languages, that's not a factoid: Factoids are things which resemble facts, but aren't actually facts.

The whole -oid suffix, really. Asteroids aren't really stars, meteoroids aren't really meteors, androids aren't really men, spheroids aren't really spheres, factoids aren't really facts, etc.

aspenmayer|2 months ago

> Factoids are things which resemble facts, but aren't actually facts.

I think you might be right but not definitively so: the Oxford dictionary has your definition, as does the New Oxford American dictionary which also lists the following as North American usage:

> a brief or trivial item of news or information