Facticide

/ˈfæk.tɪ.saɪd/ noun

Definition

The destruction or killing of a fact; deliberate suppression or elimination of factual information.

Etymology

From fact (Latin factum) + -cide (from Latin caedere, 'to kill'). A neologism formed following the pattern of 'genocide,' 'ecocide,' appearing in 20th-century discourse about misinformation.

Kelly Says

This word is a modern creation showing how language adapts to new problems — just as we got 'ecocide' for environmental destruction, 'facticide' names the act of systematically destroying truth.

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