factfact

Fact comes from Latin factum ‘an act, deed, feat, etc’, from factus ‘done or made’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- ‘to put, place, set’.

1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dʰeh₁-¹‘to put’reconstructed
2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfaciō¹‘do’
3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfactus¹‘done or made’perfect passive participle of faciō
4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfactum¹‘an act’
5. Old Frenchc. 842–1400fact¹
6. Englishearliest quotation c. 1587–1588fact¹

1. ¹ Wiktionary, English fact
2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1587–1588, Christopher Marlowe, Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […]: “UUho when he ſhal embrace you in his arms…”.