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Chris -- 2018-04-11

#1 2006-05-19 17:32:58

klakritz
Eggcornista
From: Winchester Massachusetts
Registered: 2005-10-25
Posts: 674

'the facto' for 'de facto'

A curious but sensible reshaping committed by writers who don’t realize they’re using Latin. Examples:

GSM is not a standard in Europe – it is the facto world standard …
news.zdnet.com/5208-1035-0.html?forumID=1&threadID=18804&messageID=363825&start=-1

If that is the case, Microsoft XSL client processor is the facto standard on Explorer.
www.stylusstudio.com/xsllist/199811/post40190.html

Currently, index.module is the facto default index system.
lists.drupal.org/archives/development/2001-06/msg00094.html

And to view them as the facto permanent residents, the the facto permanent additions to the labor force and get on with the business of integrating them…
www.kued.org/productions/shadowofhope/i … nelius.php

Optimized for GPRS and 3G networks Yamigo is an implementation of the facto standard for mobile world chat…
www.yamigo.com/

Do a bit of research on how Windows and Office have became the-facto standards for organizations…
forums.macrumors.com/archive/index.php/t-157239.html

Chile 1974 – Chapter I
A new “the facto” regime, which was obviously not supported by the majority of the followers of the regime that was replaced …
www.cidh.org/countryrep/Chile74eng/chap.1.htm

Political Leaders: Soviet Union
Note: Lenin, regardless his condition of the facto party leader to his death in Jan 1924, was never general secretary of the CC …
www.terra.es/personal2/monolith/ussr.htm

As the facto gatekeeper of computing, Microsoft was perhaps the most formidable of Netscape’s competitors in the long-term.
www.neominds.com.mx/boletin-de-prensa-o … -1995.html

[

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#2 2006-05-20 21:49:07

Chris Waigl
Eggcorn Faerie
From: London, UK
Registered: 2005-10-14
Posts: 115
Website

Re: 'the facto' for 'de facto'

What I’m wondering about, here, is that “the” seems to replace “the de”, that is, de gets entirely dropped under the influence of the. (“As the de facto gatekeeper …” etc.)

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#3 2010-11-20 10:14:30

burred
Eggcornista
From: Montreal
Registered: 2008-03-17
Posts: 1112

Re: 'the facto' for 'de facto'

I came across another variant, defecto. It’s most common in South Asia. There does seem to be a sense in many cases of a defect, as in imperfect, unofficial, self-appointed, improper or substitute.

In an effort to preserve the only remaining marker and the history of Qualls Landing, Dave Berry, a decendent of Nancy Qualls, has recently built a cedar-roofed shelter over the tombstone. Berry, the defecto caretaker of the county owned cemetery, has also cleared the site of overgrown brush and trees.
http://wadahp.wordpress.com/2010/10/25/ … ings/hs-6/

Kim Jong-il is the defecto president of the reclusive state
http://www.rnanews.com/ele-2010/4023-no … ction-win-

One Pakistani soldier was killed on Tuesday along the Line of Control (LoC), when India and Pakistan accused each other for violating the defecto border which divides both parts of Kashmir.
http://webmail.groundreport.com/Busines … _2/2916361

government is going to deprive them from their cultivable land and fruit orchards, which already, have been affected by Indo-Pak rivalry along LoC-the defecto- border of divided Kashmir
http://www.countercurrents.org/iqbal160609.htm

Rabobank is a Dutch team with Dutch leadership and Michael Boogart is always the defecto leader no matter who is the designated leader. Same old, same old. Put a Dutchman in an empty room and in five minutes he will be arguing with himself.
http://www.tdfblog.com/2006/07/rasmussen_takes.html

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#4 2010-11-20 18:52:30

DavidTuggy
Eggcornista
From: Mexico
Registered: 2007-10-11
Posts: 2713
Website

Re: 'the facto' for 'de facto'

In Spanish por defecto is a way to say by default or in the absence of/for lack of anything better . Did our English phrase come from something similar in French? The meaning fits a lot of cases: the de facto anything isn’t called that unless there is some question as to the legitimacy of the appellation.


*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .

(Possible Corollary: it is, and we are .)

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#5 2010-11-20 20:17:35

David Bird
Eggcornista
From: The Hammer, Ontario
Registered: 2009-07-28
Posts: 1690

Re: 'the facto' for 'de facto'

It appears that, yes, the origin of ‘defect’ in English is from a Middle French word, ‘defect’. But then things get complicated in the way they do. Suffice it to say that the word ‘defect’ has disappeared from French, except in ‘defection’. A defect in French is now a ‘default’, from a different root. Although de facto was absorbed into English in the 17th c., it showed up in French only at the end of the 19th.

So por defecto would be transliterated as “by deficiency”, and by default would be originally, “by failure”, but they’re weirdly cross-wired among the four languages, especially if you start factoring in the exposed facto.

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#6 2010-11-20 21:24:26

burred
Eggcornista
From: Montreal
Registered: 2008-03-17
Posts: 1112

Re: 'the facto' for 'de facto'

Thinking about it on the walk home it dawned on me that you put your finger on it, David. I probably looked for defecto because a defect and by default use the same word in French.

One correction to above: French also has defective, with a different suffix.

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