If someone pass on you a dollar bill and told you it was fictitious , you might be slightly confused . you’re able to sense it between your fingers , so how could it be fancied ?
That ’s because these daytime , the wordfictitiousis typically used to meanimaginary . TheLoch Ness demon , for example , is a fictitious wight ( or so we think ) . And back in the former seventeenth C when the term first appeared in print , that definition was coarse — but it was n’t the only one . Fictitiouscould also draw a imitative item ; anything fake or imitated . The nounfictionis even previous , having first shown up in written material during the late fifteenth century . It , too , could mention to a made - up concept or a counterfeit creation . Both lyric are derived from the Latin verbfingere , meaning “ to work ” or “ to fashion . ” It ’s the same place we getfeign .
By the late 16th century , people had set about usingfictionthe way we usually do — to describe literature based on imaginary events and characters , rather than fact . And whenfictionalarrived on the fit in the mid-1800s , it was basically the event of citizenry turning this sense offictioninto an adjective . That correlation is even unassailable these day , though our meaning offictionhas lucubrate to comprehend more innovative media , like TV shows and movies . If someone advert a “ fancied character , ” they ’re probably peach about a character from a Word of God , film , or some other work of fiction .
AsGrammarist explains , the contemporary employment offictitiousis a number broader than that . It can trace a movie character or another element of fiction , but it can also be used to change anything else imaginary or fabricated — especially if there ’s deceit involved . If someone concocts an alibi to localize them far from the aspect of a crime they commit , you ’d be more likely to weigh it a fabricated alibi than a fictional one .
That enjoin , as is so often the case with theEnglish language , the distinctions betweenfictionalandfictitiousare more guidelines than concrete rules . If you want to describe an alibi as fictional , nobody ’s stopping you .
[ h / tGrammarist ]
