[a. L. factum: see FACT. Cf. F. factum.]
1. Civil Law. ‘A person’s act or deed; anything stated or made certain’ (Wharton, 1848).
2. A statement of facts, or of the points in a case or controversy; a memorial. [After Fr. legal use.]
1773. Gentl. Mag., XLIII. 587. An action was brought against M. de Voltaire, and an odious factum was drawn up in the printer’s name.
1872. W. H. Jervis, Gallican Church, I. xiii. 440. The curés of Paris and Rouen put forth a series of factums or memorials.
1886. The Saturday Review, LXI. 6 March, 349/1. It is not, as might perhaps be expected, a novel nor an historical monograph, but an elaborate factum, composed by a lady (Princess Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn) who thinks herself very much wronged by her late husband’s relations.
† 3. Math. The product of two or more factors multiplied together. Obs.
1748. Hartley, Observations on Man, I. iii. 351. When the Factum of the proper Powers of [all the Quantities] is so.
1817. H. T. Colebrooke, Algebra, xvii. A factum of two unknown quantities.
