View source for Factoid

==Usage==
The term was [[neologism|coined]] by American writer [[Norman Mailer]] in his 1973 biography of [[Marilyn Monroe]].<ref name=TheGuardian>{{cite news|first=David |last=Marsh|date=January 17, 2014|work=The Guardian| url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/mind-your-language/2014/jan/17/mind-your-language-factoids |title=A factoid is not a small fact. Fact: A factoid is subtly different from a trivial fact, whatever Steve Wright may claim| access-date= June 16, 2014}}</ref> Mailer described factoids as "facts which have no existence before appearing in a magazine or newspaper",<ref>{{cite book |last=Mailer |first=Norman |title=Marilyn: A Biography |publisher=Grosset & Dunlap |year=1973 |isbn=0-448-01029-1}}</ref> and formed the word by combining the word ''fact'' and the ending ''-oid'' to mean "similar but not the same". ''[[The Washington Times]]'' described Mailer's new word as referring to "something that looks like a fact, could be a fact, but in fact is not a fact".<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2007/jan/23/20070123-121624-9376r/|title=Ah, there's joy in Mudville's precincts|last=Pruden|first=Wesley|author-link=Wesley Pruden|date=January 23, 2007|work=[[The Washington Times]]|access-date=February 24, 2012}}</ref>

Accordingly, factoids may give rise to, or arise from, [[list of common misconceptions|common misconceptions]] and [[urban legend]]s. Several decades after the term was coined by Mailer, it came to have several meanings, some of which are quite distinct from each other.<ref name=NYTimes1>{{cite news|first=William |last=Safire |author-link=William Safire |date=December 5, 1993|work=[[The New York Times Magazine]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/05/magazine/on-language-only-the-factoids.html |title=On Language; Only the Factoids|access-date= June 15, 2014}}</ref> In 1993, [[William Safire]] identified several contrasting senses of ''factoid'':

* "factoid: accusatory: misinformation purporting to be factual; or, a phony statistic."<ref name=NYTimes1/>
* "factoid: neutral: seemingly though not necessarily factual"<ref name=NYTimes1/>
* "factoid: (the CNN version): a little-known bit of information; trivial but interesting data."<ref name=NYTimes1/>

This new sense of a factoid as a trivial but interesting fact was popularized by the [[CNN Headline News]] TV channel, which, during the 1980s and 1990s, often included such a fact under the heading "factoid" during newscasts. [[BBC Radio&nbsp;2]] presenter [[Steve Wright (DJ)|Steve Wright]] used factoids extensively on his show.<ref>{{cite book |author=Steve Wright|title=Steve Wright's Book of Factoids |publisher=HarperCollins Entertainment |year=2005 |isbn=0-00-720660-7}}</ref>