Etymologically
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factum

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈfak.tũː][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈfak.tum][1]

Forms

factum n (genitive factī); second declension[1]

Etymology

It is the neuter of factus, the perfect participle of faciō “to do, make”, used as a noun.[2][3][4] Faciō is *fak-i-, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰh₁-k- (“to make”), built on Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to put”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Naevius has “whose deeds live and flourish now”.[2] Köbler dates Naevius c. 235–200 BC.[6]

Semantic evolution

It meant a deed or action, and with praise or blame a great deed, an exploit, as an early epitaph's “by your deeds you surpassed the glory of your ancestors”.[2] As opposed to fiction it meant a real happening, a fact, a question of fact in Cicero's rhetoric.[2]

It also meant something done, a piece of work, and in farming the quantity of olives pressed at one time, as in Varro and Columella.[2][3] In medieval Latin it meant a grant, a deed of transfer, a matter or concern, and a farm.[7] The Romance words, as Italian fatto and French fait, continue it.[8][1] English feat came from it through Anglo-French in the mid-14th century and fact was borrowed in the 1530s.[4]

Timeline

  • c. 235–200 BC – Naevius uses it of famous deeds.[2][6]
  • 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of an olive pressing.[3][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a question of fact.[2][6]
  • mid-14th century – English feat is recorded.[4]
  • 1530s – English fact is borrowed.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A deed, act, action.[2][1]
  2. An exploit, achievement; a misdeed.[2][1]
  3. A real happening, a fact.[2][1]
  4. Something done, a work.[2][1]
  5. The quantity of olives pressed at one time.[2][3]
  6. (Medieval Latin) A grant; a deed (document); an estate.[7]

Word family

  • profectō

Usage notes

Döderlein contrasts agere, doing whose effect exists only in time, with facere, making whose result exists in space; the facta remain after the doer stops.[9]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  4. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  8. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  9. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper