• clickyello@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      4 months ago

      “The term was coined in 1973 by American writer Norman Mailer to mean a piece of information that becomes accepted as a fact even though it is not actually true, or an invented fact believed to be true because it appears in print. Since the term’s invention in 1973, it has become used to describe a brief or trivial item of news or information.”

      from Wikipedia, so I suppose the meaning of the word has shifted from its original meaning and my claiming otherwise was a Classic Factoid™️, if you will.