WITNESS / 199
ALL WITNESSES ↗PERMANENT ATTESTATION RECORDWITNESS / 199
OBJECT
BEFORE
CLAIM.
THE PRIMARY OBJECT WAS NOT CHECKED.
Source-reported century represented conservatively by its opening year; no primary object was directly inspected.
Present-Day English14th century first known useestablished
fiction
Merriam-Webster first-known-use report
“14th century, in the invention sense”
- WITNESS TYPE
- Lexicographic first-use report
- YEAR
- 1300
- LOCATOR
- Word History: First Known Use
- REPOSITORY
- Merriam-Webster
- SHELFMARK / OBJECT ID
- Not recorded
- FACSIMILE
- Not linked
- DIRECT INSPECTION
- No
- CONFIDENCE
- established
WORD DOSSIERfiction ↗
CANONICAL FORM NODENODE 973 ↗
01
BIBLIOGRAPHIC PROVENANCE
THE SOURCE BEHIND THE CLAIM
- TITLE
- Fiction — Definition, Word History, and First Known Use
- AUTHOR
- Merriam-Webster Editors
- YEAR
- 2026
- PUBLISHER
- Merriam-Webster
- SOURCE TYPE
- historical dictionary
- CITATION KEY
- mw-fiction