English
fiction
Fiction comes from Middle English ficcioun, from Old French ficcion, from Latin fictiō ‘a making, feigning’, from fingō ‘to form’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfingō1‘to form, devise, feign’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfictiō1‘a making; a feigning’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400ficcion1‘dissimulation, invention’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500ficcioun1‘invention, fabrication’
- Englishearliest quotation 1801fiction1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English fiction
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1801, Rev. John Moir: “The transitory objects of sense, and most romantic fictions…”.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfingōWiktionary, English fiction‘to form, devise, feign’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfictiōWiktionary, English fiction‘a making; a feigning’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400ficcionWiktionary, English fiction‘dissimulation, invention’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500ficciounWiktionary, English fiction‘invention, fabrication’
- Englishearliest quotation 1801fictionWiktionary, English fiction. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1801, Rev. John Moir: “The transitory objects of sense, and most romantic fictions…”
Word family
English words that share an ancestor with fiction, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.
through Proto-Indo-European *dʰeyǵʰ- ‘to form, to shape’
through Latin fingō ‘to form, mold, shape, devise, feign’
46 more relatives in the full family tree
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Today it means
noun Literary type using invented or imaginative writing, instead of real facts, usually written as prose.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “fiction”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Latin fingō / fiction