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#153352 01/08/06 12:27 AM
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This is one I helped coin with the help of WoZ at WW:

FACTOID (proposed definition)– 1) unverified, untrue, or invented fact. "Spurious report or supposition" - Norman Mailer; "...Bush has 'lost' more than a million jobs....This is a factoid of questionable validity" – Colorado Springs Gazette. 2) Brief or trivial fact or news item See POLYFACTOID below.

POLYFACTOID – (thanks to Wizard of Oz) Compound FACTOID; entire phrase, sentence, or definition simultaneoulsy contradictory, redundant, and simply false

The entire statement, “...Bush has ‘lost’ more than a million jobs....This is a factoid of questionable validity” (Colorado Springs Gazette) is itself a polyfactoid. It is contradictory because if the factoid is questionable the statement becomes redundant; but if the factoid is true, the statement is false See FACTOID


dalehileman
#153353 01/08/06 02:34 AM
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Polyfactoid sounds like a useful addition to the arsenal. There was quite a lengthy thread here on whether the key element in a statemenmt's qualkifying to be a factoid was lack of veracity, or brevity.
http://wordsmith.org/board/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=words&Number=147068

Last edited by sjmaxq; 01/08/06 02:38 AM.
#153354 01/08/06 03:41 AM
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yeah, I remember that - it's a long thread full of lies!

#153355 01/08/06 03:50 AM
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This is the second post I've seen that refers to WW; what is that, please?

#153356 01/08/06 04:38 AM
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WW is an abbreviation for:

Warrior Within
Waterworks
Weather warning
Weight Watchers
Werewolf
Winchester and Western Railroad
The Wind Waker (in "The Legend of Zelda")
Wonder Woman
World War

~according to the Wikipedia.

#153357 01/08/06 07:49 AM
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Wordwind

#153358 01/08/06 06:25 PM
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Max thank you, its rare that I get much support

Jackie forgive me. I just naturally assume everybody uses WordWizard, WordOrigins (WO), PhraseFinder (PF), and WordSmith (WS or AWAD). I will at once desist the practice


dalehileman
#153359 01/08/06 11:43 PM
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'S'all right; I'll try to remember from now on. The only person who strenuously objected to acronyms was Dr. Bill, and his sight is so far gone now that he can't read much; I'm not sure he even reads posts at all any more. No prob. here.

#153360 01/09/06 02:54 AM
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just for the record, those aren't acronyms, but merely initialisms -- and not very helpful ones at that, since they could stand (as FS has pointed out) for a number of other things.

#153361 01/09/06 02:12 PM
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Ok; thanks.

#153362 01/09/06 04:18 PM
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Jackie again thanks for your infinite patience and tact


dalehileman
#153363 01/10/06 03:15 AM
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Hey--I am in such need of others being patient with me, the least I can do is try to be likewise.

#153364 01/11/06 01:02 AM
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Still it's a rare quality to be cherished


dalehileman
#153365 01/11/06 01:34 AM
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whole lotta cherishing going on around here!


formerly known as etaoin...
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