Emily Dickinson Lexicon

FA-CIN'O-ROUS-NESS, n.

Extreme or atrocious wickedness.

FAC-SIM'I-LE, n. [L. facio, to make, and similis, like. See Simile.]

An exact copy or likeness, as of handwriting.

FACT, n. [L. factum, from facio, to make or do; Fr. fait; It. fatto; Sp. hecho.]

1. Any thing done, or that comes to pass; an act; a deed; an effect produced or achieved; an event. Witnesses are introduced into court to prove a fact. Facts are stubborn things. To deny a fact knowingly is to lie.
2. Reality; truth; as, in fact. So we say, indeed.

FAC'TION, n. [Fr. from L. factio, from facio, to make or do.]

1. A party, in political society, combined or acting in union, in opposition to the prince, government or state; usually applied to a minority, but it may be applied to a majority. Sometimes a state is divided into factions nearly equal. Rome was almost always disturbed by factions. Republics are proverbial for factions, and factions in monarchies have often effected revolutions. A feeble government produces more factions than an oppressive one. Aines. By a faction, I understand a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community. Federalist, Madison.
2. Tumult; discord; dissension. Clarendon.

FAC'TION-A-RY, n.

A party man; one of a faction. [Little used.] Shak.

FAC'TION-ER, n.

One of a faction. [Not in use.] Bancroft.

FAC'TION-IST, n.

One who promotes faction. Mountagu.

FAC'TIOUS, a. [Fr. factieux; L. factiosus.]

1. Given to faction; addicted to form parties and raise dissensions, in opposition to government; turbulent; prone to clamor against public measures or men. No state is free from factious citizens.
2. Pertaining to faction; proceeding from faction; as factious tumults; factious quarrels. Dryden.

FAC'TIOUS-LY, adv.

In a factious manner; by means of faction; in a turbulent or disorderly manner.

FAC'TIOUS-NESS, n.

Inclination to form parties in opposition to the government, or to the public interest; disposition to clamor and raise opposition; clamorousness for a party.

FAC-TI'TIOUS, a. [L. factitius, from facio.]

Made by art, in distinction from what is produced by nature; artificial; as, factitious cinnabar; factitious stones; factitious air.

FAC-TI'TIOUS-LY, adv.

In an artificial manner.

FAC'TIVE, a.

Making; having power to make. [Not used.] Bacon.

FAC'TOR, n. [L. factor; Fr. facteur; It. fattore; from L. facio.]

1. In commerce, an agent employed by merchants, residing in other places, to buy and sell, and to negotiate bills of exchange, or to transact other business on their account.
2. An agent; a substitute.
3. In arithmetic, the multiplier and multiplicand, from the multiplication of which proceeds the product.

FAC'TOR-AGE, n.

The allowance given to a factor by his employer, as a compensation for his services; called also a commission. This is sometimes a certain sum or rate by the cask or package; more generally it is a certain rate per cent of the value of the goods purchased or sold.

FAC-TO'RI-AL, a.

Pertaining to a factory; consisting in a factory. Buchanan.

FAC'TOR-SHIP, n.

A factory; or the business of a factor. Sherwood.

FAC'TO-RY, n.

1. A house or place where factors reside, to transact business for their employers. The English merchants have factories in the East Indies, Turkey, Portugal, Hamburg, &c.
2. The body of factors in any place; as, a chaplain to a British factory. Guthrie.
3. Contracted from manufactory, a building or collection of buildings, appropriated to the manufacture of goods; the place where workmen are employed in fabricating goods, wares or utensils.

FAC-TO'TUM, n. [L. do every thing.]

A servant employed to do all kinds of work. B. Jonson.

FAC'TURE, a. [Fr.]

The art or manner of making. Bacon.

FAC'UL-TY, n. [Fr. faculté; L. facultas, from facio, to make.]

1. That power of the mind or intellect which enables it to receive, revive or modify perceptions; as, the faculty of seeing, of hearing, of imagining, of remembering, &c.; or in general, the faculties may be called the powers or capacities of the mind. Faculty is properly a power belonging to a living or animal body.
2. The power of doing any thing; ability. There is no faculty or power in creatures, which can rightly perform its functions, without the perpetual aid of the Supreme Being. Hooker.
3. The power of performing any action, natural, vital or animal. The vital facutly is that by which life is preserved. Quincy.
4. Facility of performance; the peculiar skill derived from practice, or practice aided by nature; habitual skill or ability; dexterity; adroitness; knack. One man has a remarkable faculty of telling a story; another of inventing excuses for misconduct; a third, of reasoning; a fourth, of preaching.
5. Personal quality; disposition or habit, good or ill. Shak.
6. Power; authority. This Duncan / Hath borne his faculties so meek. Shak. [Hardly legitimate.]
7. Mechanical power; as, the faculty of the wedge. [Not used, nor legitimate.] Wilkins.
8. Natural virtue; efficacy; as, the faculty of simples. [Not used, nor legitimate.] Milton.
9. Privilege; a right or power granted to a person by favor or indulgence, to do what by law he may not do; as, the faculty of marrying without the bans being first published, or of ordaining a deacon under age. The archbishop of Canterbury has a court of faculties, for granting such privileges or dispensations. Encyc.
10. In colleges, the masters and professors of the several sciences. Johnson. One of the members or departments of a university. In most universities there are four faculties; of arts, including humanity and philosophy; of theology; of medicine; and of law. Encyc. In America, the faculty of a college or university consists of the president, professors and tutors. The faculty of advocates, in Scotland, is a respectable body of lawyers who plead in all causes before the courts of session, justiciary and exchequer. Encyc.

FAC'UND, a. [L. facundus, supposed to be from the root of for, fari, to speak.]

Eloquent.

FA-CUND'I-OUS, a.

Eloquent; full of words.

FA-CUND'I-TY, n. [L. facunditas.]

Eloquence; readiness of speech.

FAD'DLE, v.i.

To trifle; to toy; to play. [A low word.]