“The necktie, once called a cravat, evolved from a simple scarf which kept the collar closed and the neck warm. The word comes from the French cravate, which has an interesting derivation. The French king Louis XIII hired some Croatian cavalrymen as mercenaries during the Thirty Years’ War and was impressed by the debonair and complicated way in which they knotted their scarves. This elaborate knot became the fashion in the king’s court, and was a Hrvat, which is “Croat” in Croation. Hrvat became corrupted to cravate in French. So what you are really wearing with your suit is not a tie but a Croatian.”
~from Russell Smith’s Men’s Style
“Factoid can refer to a spurious (unverified, incorrect, or invented) “fact” intended to create or prolong public exposure or to manipulate public opinion…
Factoid is now sometimes also used to mean a small piece of true but valueless or insignificant information, in contrast to the original definition.”
~ from Wikipedia
I am using the word in the latter sense (I hope), but minus the disparaging qualifiers.