Is it a factoid that the word factoid means a small, interesting fact?

Yes it is. Unfortunately you and I have likely not yet effectively communicated.

The Wordle answer a few weeks back was “aster”. I immediately thought of “star” in ancient Greek. Not because I studied ancient Greek or was preparing for 19th century British civil service exams (yes, that’s a whole different story) but because I like language and astronomy.

Astronomy. The study of the stars. We are not going to talk about astrology or disasters. I’m a Taurus so I’m bull-headed that way.

So what is an asteroid? It is something that is star-like, but not a star. Humanoid? Human-like, but not a human. Spheroid? Like a sphere, but not quite. A little squished by spinning too fast, perhaps. Android? Like iOS but not quite.

Anyway, you get it.

So what does that tell you about factoid?

A factoid is like a fact, but it’s not. It is an untrue statement repeated as fact.

Well at least it was until humanity broke it. I’m not against language evolving. But when a word is misunderstood and misused until it means effectively the opposite of what it’s supposed to mean, we’ve surely gone too far.

So, is it a factoid that the word factoid means a small, interesting fact? Yes. And that’s something we can all agree on.