fact 
With the majority of writers, also, a .furl, or fiiinlf f"<'l, 
relates only to an iiuliviiln.il tiling or Individual set of 
things. Thus, that Brntu> killed CMarli ii<l to lure been 
a fuel ; but that all men are mortal is not railed a /</, lint 
a coUirtitin nf furls. Ky fart is also often iiieant a true 
statement, a truth, or truth in general ; hut this seems to he 
a mere inexactness of language, and in many passages any 
attempt to distinguish between the meanings on the sup- 
position that fact means a true statement, and on the snp- 
position that it means the real relation signified by a true 
statement would he empty subtlety, fact is often used 
as correlative to theory, to denote that whieh is certain or 
well settled the phenomena whieh the theory colligates 
and harmonizes, r'ai-t, as being special, is tometlmi s op- 
poird to I nith, as being universal ; and in such eases there 
is an implication that/off* are minute matters ascertained 
by research, anil often inferior in their importance for the 
formation of general opinions, or for the general descrip- 
tion of phenomena, to other matters which are of familiar 
experience. 
I am wonnded 
In fact, nor can words cure it. 
Fletcher (and another), Elder Brother, iv. 1. 
The Right Honorable gentleman is indebted to his mem- 
ory for his jests and to his imagination for his /acts. 
Sheridan, Speech in Keply to Mr. Dundas. 
In order to believe that gold is yellow, I must, indeed, 
have the idea of gold, and the idea of yellow, and some- 
thing having reference to these ideas must take place in 
my mind ; but my belief has not reference to the ideas, it 
has reference to the things. What I believe is a /act re- 
lating to the outward thing, gold, and to the impressions 
made by that outward thing upon the human organs; not 
a fact relating to my conception of gold, which would be 
A fact in my mental history, not a /act of external nature. 
J. S. Mill, Logic, I. v. 1. 
The basis of all scientific explanation consists in assim- 
ilating & fact to some other fact or facts. 
A. Bain, Logic, III. xii. 2. 
A law is a grouping of observed facts. Challis. 
A world of facts lies outside and beyond the world of 
words. Huxley, Lay Sermons, p. 57. 
The whole human fact of him, as a creature like myself, 
with hair and blood and seeing eyes, haunted me in that 
sunny, solitary place, not like a spectre, but like some 
friend whom I had basely injured. 
R. Li. Stevenson, Merry Men. 
3. In law, an actual or alleged physical or 
mental event or existence, as distinguished 
from a legal effect or consequence : as in the 
phrases matter of fact, question of fact, the facts 
of the case, as distinguished from matter of law, 
question of law, the law of the case. Thus, whether 
certain words were spoken is a question of fact; whether, 
if spoken, they constituted a binding promise, is usually 
a question of (aw. Ablative fact, a fact which accord- 
ing to law takes away a right. Collateral facts. See 
collateral. Collatlve fact, a fact appointed by law to 
give commencement to a right. Conclusion of fact. 
See concdmon. Divestitive fact. SanieasaMatire/act. 
Error In fact. See error. Evidential or eviden- 
tiary facts. See evidential. Fact of consciousness, 
a fact whose existence is given and guaranteed by an ori- 
ginal and necessary belief. Fixed fact. See fixed. In 
fact, in reality ; in truth ; indeed. 
Dangle. It certainly must hurt an author of delicate 
feelings to see the liberties they [the newspapers] take. 
Sir Fret. No ! quite the contrary ; their abuse is, in fact, 
the best panegyric I like it of all things. 
Sheridan, The Critic, i. 1. 
In the factt, in the act. 
It cannot be evidently proved, or they likely taken in 
the fact. Burton, Anat. of Mel., p. 582. 
Investitive fact. Same as cottative fact. The fact, 
the truth : in such collocations as, Is it the fact that he 
said so? Ultimate fact, an indemonstrable truth, 
facta, n. Plural otfactum. 
faction (fak'shon), . [= Or. faction = Dan. Sw. 
faktion, < F. faction = Sp. faccion = Pg./acyao 
= It. fazione, < L. factio(n-), a making, doing, 
a taking part, a company, party, faction, < fac- 
tus, pp. offacere, do, make, take part: see fact. 
Doublet of fashion 1 , q. v.] 1. A party of persons 
having a common end in view; usually, such a 
party seeking by irregular means to bring about 
changes in government or in the existing state 
of affairs, or in any association of which they 
form part ; a combination of persons using sub- 
versive or perverse methods of promoting their 
own selfish or partizan views or interests, espe- 
cially in matters of state. 
You are all of hie /action; the whole court 
Is bold in praise of him. 
Beau, and Ft., Philaster, i. 2. 
How oft a Patriot's best laid Schemes we find 
By Party cross'd or Faction undermin'd ! 
Congreve, Epistle to Lord Halifax. 
Thus that city [Florence] became divided, as all the rest 
of Italy was before, into the two /action* of Guelphs and 
Ohibellines. J. Adams, Works, V. 13. 
This . . . made the government absolute, and led to 
consequences which, as by a fixed law, must ever result in 
popular governments of this form : namely, to organized 
parties, or rather factions, contending violently to obtain 
or retain the control of the government. 
Calhoun, On Government, I. 100. 
2. Combined disorderly opposition to estab- 
lished authority; turbulence; tumult; dissen- 
sion. 
He could not endure any ordinances or worship, etc., 
and when they arrived at one of the Eleutheria Islands, 
133 
2113 
factor 
. . . In- inadi- sui-h a faction as enforced Captain Sayle to factish (fak'tish), fl. [(fact + -l*// 1 .] Deal- 
remove to another island. ing with facts ; insisting upon facts. [Rare.] 
\\miliroti. Hist. New England, II. 409. 
How happily does he expose that faetith element in hu- 
TheyremainedatNewlmryiiij.-iuuyar/.oyiamonKthem- nian natu ' ^^ , C( , R .li.,;,,.,,^,,,.,! ;,.t,,,,,,,,,R-r to de- 
selves. Clarendon, Great Rebellion. S( . ri , ie , he ,.;,. ,, f thc i.,.j,,cipia as " I1K . re crotchets of 
If there had been any taint in his doctrine that way [to- Mr. Newton !" Thr .!<</<. M.V, Jan. 2, 1886. 
ward treason], there Imd been reason enough in such an -....,,,.,,,. f Sn 'Psr farti 
Age of /action and sedition to have used the utmost care taCtltlpUS (t.lk-tls l IS), a. |__ P- Sl/ ' 
to prevent the spreading it. Stilliiujflett, .Sermons, I. iii. 
_ 
ictttuix, better faeticius, made by art, 
artificial, in later grammarians also of words, 
ich they would blush in a private ca- ,, , , -, psl] it: n ,; f rorn ar f j n distinction 
A. Hamilton, The Federalist, No. xv. Made Dy o m, IE 
pacitV. A . fltl'llttuvit, A1IC r (,-in-i .vn>i, *iw. AY. v 
, . , from that which is produced by or conformable 
3. In Rom. antiq., one of the classes into which to nature artificial . conventional, 
the charioteers in the circensian games were A ^^ m wWch J, ^ di8tinctions were of 
divided, one of each contending in a race. The less worth tnall individual prowess and efficiency, 
four regular.factions, distinguished by their dresses as the 
green, red, blue, and white, represented spring, summer, 
autumn, and winter. Uomitian added purple and yellow 
factions, making six contestants in every race; but these 
new divisions were not permanent. A dispute in Constan- 
tinople, in 532, between the green and blue factions and 
their partizans, the emperor Justinian favoring the latter, 
led to a civil war of five days, which cost 30,000 lives and 
nearly overthrew the government. 
Their trains must bate, 
Their titles, feasts, anil factions. 
B. Jonson, Sejanus, ii. 2. 
Before the close of the republic, an enthusiastic parti- 
san of one of the factions in the chariot races flung himself 
upon the pile on which the body of a favourite coachman 
was consumed, and perished in the flames. 
Lecky, Europ. Morals, I. 231. 
= Syn. 1. Combination, Party, etc. SeecaooJl. 
factional (fak'shon-al), a. [< faction + -at.] 
Of, pertaining to, or characterized by faction : 
as, factional resentment; factional perversity. 
Long identified with factional politics. 
Philadelphia Times, April 28, 1885. 
Prescott, Ferd. and Isa., Int. 
Manners are factitious, and grow out of circumstances, 
as well as out of character. Emerson, Conduct of Life. 
He takes away all the screens which give a factitious 
dignity and elevation to governments and men. 
Whipjile, Ess. and Rev., I. 147. 
Rock alum [is] ((factitious article consisting of crystal- 
line fragments of alum not larger than almonds, coloured 
with Venetian red. Ure, Diet., III. 709. 
= Syn. Artificial, Factitious, Unnatural. Artificial means 
done by art, as opposed to natural. That is unnatural 
which departs in any way from what is natural : as, un- 
natural excitement. An artificial or factitious demand 
in the market is one that is manufactured, the latter being 
the more laboriously worked up ; a factitious demand 
exists only in the invention of one and the imagination of 
another ; an -unnatural demand is greater than the laws 
of trade would produce. 
Artificial and factitious gemms. 
Sir T. Browne, Vulg. Err., i. 1. 
The factitious is the elaborately artificial in things of a 
moral, social, or material kind. A factitious demand is 
one which has been artificially created by pains and effort 
required to produce it. The term points more to the labor 
and less to the skill which produces the artificial. 
C. J. Smith, Synonymes, p. 120. 
Unnatural deeds 
Do breed unnatural troubles. Shak., Macbeth, v.l. 
tion.~] Active as a partizan ; factious; zealous, factitiously (fak-tish'us-li), adv. In a facti- 
factionaryt (fak'shon-a-ri), a. [= F. faction- 
naire = Sp. Pg. faccioiiario = It. fazioimrio, < 
LL. factionarius, the head of a company of 
charioteers, < L. factio(n-), a faction : see fac- 
Prithee, fellow, remember my name is Menenius, always 
/aelionary on the party of your general. Shak., Cor., v. 2. 
factionert (fak'shon-er), n. [< faction + -er'*; 
ult. < LL. factionarius : see factionary.~\ One 
of a faction. 
tious or artificial manner. 
Whilst, therefore, there is a truth in the belief that 
" progress, and at the same time resistance " is the law of 
social change, there is a fatal error in the inference that 
resistance should he factitiously created. 
//. Spencer, Social Statics, p. 513. 
The factioners had entered into such a sediHoua^cou. factitiOUSneSS(fak-tish'us-nes), . The quality 
factionist(fak'shpn-ist),. [< faction + -ist.] A factitive (fak'ti-tiv), a. and n. [< NL. facti- 
member of a faction or a promoter of a faction, tivus, < L. factus, pp. offacere, make : see/c.] 
Henry had yielded with repugnance to a union with I. a. Causative; effective; expressive of mak- 
Elizabeth the Yorkist ; the sullen Lancastrian long looked j n g or cau sing : in grammar said of a verb which 
on his queen with the ^$&&%**^ of Lit I 264 takes, besides its object, a further adjunct ex- 
' '. T pressing something predicated of that object 
factious (fak'shus), a. [= F. factieui, < L. 
factiosus, of or for a party or faction, <factio(n-), 
a faction: see faction."] 1. Given to faction; 
dissentious; promoting partizan views or aims 
by perverse or irregular means ; turbulent. 
But ambitious and factious Men are never discouraged 
by such an appearance of difficulties. 
Stillingfleet, Sermons, I. vii. 
That factious and seditious spirit that has appeared of 
late. Chesterfield, Misc. , I V. xci. 
At home the hateful names of parties cease, 
He had to deal with a martial and factious nobility. 
Prescott, Ferd. and Isa., ii. 25. 
thus, they made him a ruler; to call a man 
a coward ; to paint the house red. The adjunct 
predicated of the object is called a factitive- or objective 
predicate (sometimes, less correctly, a factitive object). 
For instance, in certain branches of this stock, as the 
Persian, etc., . . . the tendency of causal verbs_ to lose 
their force altogether, even with the longer factitive form, 
which they faithfully keep, is only the breaking through 
of that principle which asserted itself almost universally 
In the late analytic state of the group. 
Amer. Jour. Philol., II. 186. 
.313. factitude (fak'ti-tud), H. [Irreg. < fact + -itude, 
after aptitude, etc.] The quality of being fact ; 
reality. 
It is when we are most aware of the factitude of things 
that we are most aware of our need of God, and most able 
to trust him. Geo. MacDonald, What's Mine 's Mine. 
ML. factivu3, < L. fac- 
: see fact.] Making ; 
having power to make. 
Your majesty is a king whose heart is as unscrutable 
for secret motions of goodness as for depth of wisdom. 
You are creator-like, factive, and not destructive. 
Bacon, To James I., let. 276. 
2. Pertaining to or proceeding from faction ; of 
a turbulent partizan character. 
Factious tumults overbore the freedom and honour of fanH-trm /faL-'tiir't n 
the two houses. Eikon Basilike. laCUVOt uaK 11V), a^ 
Why these factious quarrels, controversies, and battles - * 
amongst themselves, when they were all united in the 
same design ? Dryden. 
He is immediately alarmed, and loudly exclaims against 
such factious doings, in order to set the people by the ears 
together at such a delicate juncture. 
Goldsmith, National Concord, facto (f ak to), adv. [L., abl. offactum, a deed.] 
The emigrants themselves were weakened by factious In law (properly de facto), in fact; in deed; by 
divisions. Bancroft, Hist. U. S., I. 98. the act or fact. 
factor (fak'tor), n. [Formerly slsofactour; = 
F. facteur = Sp. Pg. factor = It. fattore = D. 
faktoor= G. factor = Dan. Sw./aA-for, < L./ac- 
tor, a doer, maker, performer, ML. agent, etc., < 
facere, do, make : see fact. Cf. faitor, faitour.] 
1. One who transacts business for another or 
others ; specifically, in com., a commission-mer- 
chant; an agent intrusted with the possession 
of goods for sale. "The distinctive features of bis 
position are : (1) he pursues the business of receiving and 
selling goods as a trade or calling ; (2) the goods are re- 
ceived either in bulk or sample into his possession ; (3) 
3f. Active ; urgent ; zealous. 
Be factious for redress of all these griefs ; 
And I will set this foot of mine as far 
As who goes farthest. Shak., J. C,, i. 3. 
factiously (fak'shus-li), ado. In a factious 
manner ; by means t of faction ; in a turbulent 
or disorderly manner, 
factiousness (fak'shus-nes), n. [< factious + 
-ness.'] The state or quality of being factious ; 
disposition to promote or take part in faction. 
A gentleman, indeed, most rarely accomplished, excel- 
lently learned but without all vainglory, friendly without 
factiousness. Sir P. Sidney, Arcadia, i. 
With all their factiousness, they [the Clericals] could not 
very well dare to pursue their habitual tactics of opposi- 
tion in a matter which, after all, was of much more con- 
cern to their constituents than spiritual and religious in- 
terests. Lowe, Bismarck, II. 4B7. 
he has power to sell ; (4) he serves for a commission, al- 
though in exceptional cases remuneration maybe made in 
some other way ; (5) he is generally resident in some other 
place than his principal." (Wharton, On Agency, 435.) 
More loosely, a factor is an agent to buy or sell goods, or 
both, and to handle them, to buy or sell bills of exchange, 
and do other businesson account of persons in other places. 
