• theneverfox@pawb.social
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    19 hours ago

    Well, language is a living thing. In my experience, the meaning of that word has shifted over the past couple decades

    Fact-oid means something like malformed fact, but we no longer use this suffix much because it’s offensive. So the suffix kinda lost it’s meaning in everyday language, which makes this kind of flip common… There’s a word for this kind of drift, but I don’t remember it

    • Victor@lemmy.world
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      15 hours ago

      I have the opposite experience — I’ve never seen anyone use the “fact” version of factoid. Only the “untrue statement” version.

      Oh well, as long as we understand each other.