| fiction \FIK-shehn\ (noun) - 1 : The process of creative fabrication or its result, a creative fabrication; that is, something dreamed up and not real. 2 : A kind of completely creative writing in which the characters and actions have no basis in reality.
"In order to get an interview for the job, Melanie submitted a mostly fictional resume replete with fictitious jobs and fictitious degrees from fictitious universities."
Today's word is another that comes to us through French from Latin, in this case, Latin fictio(n-) "making, forming, faking" from "fictus," the past participle of fingere "to shape, mold, or form." The same root gave us "figure," "figment," "fein," and "effigy." The original Proto-Indo-European root was *dheigh- "to shape, make" which came directly to Old English as daege "(bread-)kneader." Although this word did not make it to Modern English, in Middle English it became daie "milkmaid," which plays a major role in "dairy," from Middle English daie "milkmaid" + erie "place of." Today's word has two close but distinct senses reflected in its two adjectives. On the one hand, "fiction" refers to the creativity of a good novelist who makes up characters and actions from his or her own mind rather than from experience. On the other, fictions are often created to deceive. The adjective "fictional" generally refers to literature, as a fictional character or a fictional setting (as opposed to historical characters or a real setting). "Fictitious," however, most often implies deception, as a fictitious name or a fictitious work history. |
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