Etymology

de facto

Today it means: In actual use or existence, regardless of official or legal status. Full definition →

Latin dē factō
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The story

  1. Latin · borrowed fromdē factō
  2. English todayde facto

Unadapted borrowing from Latin dē factō (literally “according to fact”), from dē (“according to”) + ablative of factum (“fact, deed, act”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.