Factitious
/fækˈtɪʃ.əs/noun
Artificially created or not natural; often deliberately made to seem real.
Did you know?Factitious comes from Latin *facticius*, meaning “made by art” or “artificial,” from *facere* (“to make”), the same root behind a huge family of power-words about creation and action.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*dheh₁-
“to put, place, set”
Latin
Latin
facere
“to do, make, perform”
Classical Latin
Latin
facticius
“made by art; artificial; not natural”
Middle French
Old French
factice
“artificial; made up”
16th Century
English
factitious
“artificial, contrived, not natural”
Modern English
English
factitious
“artificially created or not natural; often deliberately made to seem real”