Words

Fact

fakt
A thing known to be true, from Latin factum, a thing done, the deed before it became the data.
Documented

The deed noun

Latin factum, thing done, from facere (to make, do). Early English fact meant an act, a crime ('after the fact'), an accomplishment; the sense of verified truth is 16th-17th century, rising with law courts and the Royal Society. Facere's family is colossal: factory, fashion, feature, difficult, benefit, artificial.

Assessment: Documented: the semantic shift is dated to the scientific revolution's doorstep.
Stories

Alternative facts

The eternal complaint, refreshed every generation: facts are supposed to be settled, yet every era's facts come with an expiration date. The word's history feeds the cynicism, if facts are made (facere), they can be made otherwise.

Assessment: Stories: the cynicism is ancient; Bacon complained about manufactured facts in Latin.
Interesting claims

The making of truth

The philosophical nerve: fact encodes the radical claim that truth is a species of manufacture. Constructivists quote the etymology like scripture; realists point out that a deed done is stubbornly unchangeable, the fact as the one thing even power cannot unmake. The word holds both charges.

Assessment: Interesting: both readings are philologically defensible, which is why the argument never ends.
Sources and further reading
  1. Oxford English Dictionary, 'fact,' semantic history
  2. Lewis & Short, 'facere,' 'factum'
  3. Steven Shapin and Simon Schaffer, Leviathan and the Air-Pump, on the fact's 17th-century rise
Worth asking

When did done become true, and who performed the conversion?

Open in the interactive archive
GR8YFILES · competing origin stories, labeled by the strength of their evidence · readers 14+