Etymologically
Log in

faction

History Permalink

Etymology and origin of the English word faction

English has two words spelled faction: the old word for a dissenting group, from Latin, and a 20th-century blend of fact and fiction.[1][2][3][4]

Pronunciation

  • /ˈfæk.ʃən/[5]

faction1 party, group

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1440, Promptorium Parvulorum
Borrowed from
Middle French faction
Ultimate origin
Latin faciō

Etymology

The group is partly borrowed from Middle French faction (also spelt faccion), recorded in French from about 1355 for a seditious group or action,[1][2] and partly a direct borrowing of its source, Latin factiō (“a making or doing; a band, company, political party”).[1][2][6][7] The Latin noun is formed on factus, the past participle of faciō (“to do, make”), with the suffix -ion;[1][2][7] the American Heritage Dictionary and Etymonline trace the verb to Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to set, put”).[8][2] The same Latin word, through Old French, gave fashion, of which faction is a doublet.[6][7][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The action or process of making something: 1440, in the Promptorium Parvulorum, a sense now obsolete.[1][10] A way of acting, a course of conduct, followed in 1447, in Osbern Bokenham's lives of saints.[1] Etymonline dates the word to about 1500, Barnhart and Merriam-Webster to 1509 in the sense of a party.[2][6][3]

Semantic evolution

The early senses "making" and "conduct" were shared with fashion, and both had died out by the 18th and 19th centuries.[1][9] The political sense, an organized dissenting group within a larger one, is recorded from 1509, in John Fisher's sermon for the Countess of Richmond,[1][6] and dissension or party strife in general from a1538, in Thomas Starkey.[1][10] In ancient Rome, Etymonline notes, a factio was first one of the companies of contractors for the chariot races, each known by the colour of its drivers' dress;[2] English has this historical sense from 1606, in Philemon Holland's Suetonius.[1] Johnson (1755) gave "a party in a state" and "tumult; discord; dissension".[11] From 1699 the word was used for a close-knit group of related families in the Scottish Highlands or in Ireland,[1] and the English Dialect Dictionary records Irish factions as hostile associations of peasants, usually one family with its friends and relations.[12] In South Africa, from 1880, it meant any of several rival rural groups whose feuds broke out in periodic violence.[1] At Aberdeen Grammar School a faction was a division of a class, or the bench it sat on, from 1700.[1][12]

Timeline

  • 1440 – the action of making something (obsolete).[1]
  • 1447 – a course of conduct (obsolete).[1]
  • 1509 – an organized dissenting group, especially in politics.[1][6][3]
  • a1538 – dissension, party strife.[1]
  • 1606 – (Roman history) a company of chariot-race contractors.[1]
  • 1609 – verb, to act factiously, to intrigue.[1][3]
  • 1699 – a clan or close-knit family group, in Scotland or Ireland.[1]
  • 1700 – (Scotland) a division of a school class.[1]
  • 1880 – (South Africa) a rival rural group.[1]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A small, organized group within a larger body, such as a political party, that disagrees with the rest or pursues its own ends.
  2. Dissension or quarrelling within a group; party spirit.
  3. (Roman history) One of the companies that supplied the chariots and drivers for the races of the circus.

Verb

  1. (rare or obsolete) To form factions; to split into factions.

Word family

  • factional
  • factionalism
  • factious

faction2 fact and fiction

Confidence
Established
Formation
Blend
First attested
1967, H. Atkinson, Games (publisher's note)
Ultimate origin
English fact,fiction
Etymology tree of faction2
inherited borrowed derived
Latin factum
French fait
Italian fatto
English fact
English faction
From the same root · faction2
Italian affatto ← fatto

Etymology

The genre is a blend: from English fact + fiction.[1][2][3][4][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Fiction built on real events or characters: 1967, in the publisher's note to H. Atkinson's Games.[1][2][3]

Timeline

  • 1967 – documentary fiction or drama.[1][3]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A literary or film genre that tells a story based on real people or events, using the methods of fiction; a work of this kind.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  6. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  7. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  9. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
  11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  12. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Faction.” Etymologically, 22 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/faction. Accessed 23 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·