Factoid

I love words, all writers do. Often I wish I knew more words and sometimes I think I should consider vocabulary expansion exercises, but I know that it’s not vocabulary per se that will enhance my writing, it’s specifics — using the precise word to evoke an emotion, to create a mental image.

Words sometimes appear in the flow of something I’m writing, and I realize I’m not 100% sure I know the definition, so I check. I like to be precise, I like to make sure the word is really communicating what I intend.

That’s how I found out about factoid. I used the word often. I liked the sound of it and I liked, what I thought, was the meaning of it — a brief and interesting tidbit of information. Then one day I was creating a few marketing slides for the boss of my boss and I decided one of the slides would have “factoids” about the technology arena where my company plays.

A quick click to Google led to a shocking discovery. Factoid means the opposite of what I thought it meant, the opposite of what many in the marketing field think it means. Factoid: “something resembling a fact; unverified (often invented) information that is given credibility because it appeared in print”. Ooops.

Factoid was reportedly coined by Norman Mailer. Depending on your view of the marketing profession, it makes sense that marketeers might consider factoids to be truth, but since then, I’ve seen it pop up in news, blogs and other online spots. Google it, you’ll see what I mean.

Although I enjoyed using it in marketing, it certainly didn’t do anything to enhance my fiction writing. Still, now that I have no use for factoid, I miss it — such a perky-sounding word.