faction

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See also: -faction and fraction

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈfæk.ʃən/, /ˈfæk.ʃn̩/
    • Audio (Southern England)(file)
  • Rhymes: -ækʃən

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Middle French faction, from Latin factiō (“a group of people acting together, a political faction”), noun of process from perfect passive participle factus, from faciō (“do, make”). Doublet of fashion.

Noun

faction (countable and uncountable, plural factions)

  1. (countable) A group of people, especially within a political organization, which expresses a shared belief or opinion different from people who are not part of the group.
    • 1748, David Hume, “Of Parties in General — How factions arise and contend.”, in Essays, Moral and Political:
      Real factions may be divided into those from interest, from principle, and from affection
  2. (uncountable) Strife; discord.
    • 1805, Johann Georg Cleminius, Englisches Lesebuch für Kaufleute, page 188:
      Publick [sic] affairs soon fell into the utmost confusion, and in this state of faction and perplexity, the island continued, until its re-capture by the French in 1779.
    • 2001, Odd Magne Bakke, "Concord and Peace": A Rhetorical Analysis of the First Letter of Clement With an Emphasis on the Language of Unity and Sedition, publ. Mohr Siebeck, →ISBN, page 89:
      He asks the audience if they believe that they will be more loved by the gods if the city is in a state of faction than if they govern the city with good order and concord.
Derived terms
Related terms
Terms etymologically related to faction (etymology 1)
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

See also

Etymology 2

Blend of fact +‎ fiction.

Noun

faction (uncountable)

  2. (literature, film) A form of literature, film etc., that treats real people or events as if they were fiction; a mix of fact and fiction.
    • 1986 June 16, W. J. Weatherby, “Blind genius of faction”, in The Guardian‎:
      Blind genius of faction / Obituary of Jorge Luis Borges, Argentine writer [title]
    • 2000, Sue Vice, Holocaust Fiction, Psychology Press, →ISBN, page 93:
      Contemporary reviewers offered different labels in attempts to describe the genre of Schindler's List. Lorna Sage, D.J. Enright and Robert Taubman called it a ‘documentary novel’; Paul Bailey and Gay Firth ‘faction’; […]
    • 2007 November 12, Mark Lawson, “The king of faction”, in The Guardian‎:
      [Norman Mailer] was, though, absolutely the daddy of faction, his novels or journalism reporting every conflict from 1939 to Iraq and biographising Americans including John F Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, Muhammad Ali and Neil Armstrong.
  3. The facts found in fiction.
Derived terms
See also

Further reading

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin factiōnem. Doublet of façon.

Pronunciation

Noun

faction f (plural factions)

  1. act of keeping watch
  2. a watchman
  3. (politics) a faction; specifically one which causes trouble

Further reading

Wikious
Boobota
Sagapedia