User:Cnilep/Factlet

Factlet is a term which describes a trivial and ephemeral fact which is nevertheless accurate. New York Times writer William Safire in his On Language column advocated the use of the word factlet to mean "a brief fact" to express a "little bit of arcana". A report in The Guardian identified Safire as the writer who coined the term factlet, although Safire's 1993 column suggested factlet was already in use at that time.

Factlet versus factoid
The term factlet came into existence mostly as a result of ambiguity about the word factoid. This latter term was coined by writer Norman Mailer in his 1973 biography of Marilyn Monroe, but by 1993 had grown to have several, sometimes conflicting, meanings. In 1993 Safire identified contrasting senses of factoid:


 * 1) factoid: accusatory: "misinformation purporting to be factual; or, a phony statistic."
 * 2) factoid: neutral: "seemingly though not necessarily factual"
 * 3) factoid: the CNN version: "a little-known bit of information; trivial but interesting data."

For some, factoid signified a questionable or spurious piece of information, unverified, incorrect, or fabricated, that is, a brief statement which appears factual but lacks veracity; for others, it signified a small piece of true but valueless or insignificant information, which is in contrast to the original sense as being incorrect or unverified; for example, a report in The Atlantic in 2012 suggested that factoid has come to mean a "brief interesting fact".

As a result of confusion over the meaning of factoid, some English-language style and usage guides began to recommend against using factoid. The Atlantic agreed with Safire, and recommended factlet instead of factoid, such that factlet would signify a "small probably unimportant but interesting fact", and that the term be used in place of factoid, which often has negative connotations. The term factlet has been used in publications such as Mother Jones, the San Jose Mercury News, and in the Reno Gazette Journal.