Ink Pen by Phil Dunlap for March 20, 2024

Ralston has confused ‘similar’ and ‘antonym’ it is an error not many can make. Would he insist a spheroid is a box because it’s not a perfect sphere?

Personoid can leave you VERY annoyed!!

The definition I heard is, “A factoid is a false idea that everyone thinks is true.”

I’m not going to ask about hemorrhoids……

I needed to check the actual origin, the intended meaning.

“ Norman Mailer gets the credit for coming up with the word “factoid,” which he used in a 1973 biography of Marilyn Monroe. Merriam-Webster notes that Mailer called them “facts which have no existence before appearing in a magazine or newspaper, creations which are not so much lies as a product to manipulate emotion in the Silent Majority.”

Mailer seems to have chosen the suffix “oid” because it forms “resembling” nouns. Think of it this way: A “humanoid” resembles a human — but isn’t human. A “factoid,” then, resembles a fact — but isn’t one, according to Mailer’s definition. Judging from our email traffic, plenty of people agree with him”

Why have I never noticed this? Solecism alert!

Dear Ralston, thank you for ably stating the meaning of the word “factoid” while thereby proving yourself wrong.

to quibble about this would be really adultoid…