Etymologically
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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /dɪˈfɔːlt/, /dɪˈfɒlt/; noun also /ˈdiː.fɔːlt/[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English defaute, borrowed from Old French defaute (“fault, defect, failure, lack”),[2][3][4] formed on defaillir (“to fail”) on the model of faute (fault) and faillir (fail),[2][4][5] and partly from Medieval Latin defalta (“deficiency, failure”),[2] from Vulgar Latin *defallita,[3] from dē- (“away”) and fallere (“to deceive, disappoint; to be wanting”).[2][3][6] Hoad also notes French défaut, a back-formation on defaute.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

An offence, crime or sin: 1250 in the Ancrene Riwle in Barnhart, the early 13th century in Etymonline.[2][3] Absence or lack of something wanted is from before 1300 in the OED.[7]

Semantic evolution

A failing, a failure to act, is from about 1280 in Barnhart and the late 13th century in Etymonline,[2][3] and in law the failure to do something required, such as to appear in court, from 1292.[7] In default of, for want of, is from 1297.[7] Spellings with l are recorded from 1393, but the OED notes that the l was not generally pronounced for at least two hundred years.[2] The verb meant to be lacking in the late 14th century, in the Wycliffe Bible,[2][3] and to fail to fulfil an obligation, especially a legal or financial one, from the late 15th century.[3] The financial sense of the noun, failure to pay a debt, is first recorded in 1858,[3] and the computing sense, a value or option used when no other is chosen, is from 1966.[3]

Timeline

  • 1250 – an offence, sin.[2]
  • c. 1280 – a failure.[2]
  • 1292 – failure to appear in court.[7]
  • before 1382 – the verb, to be lacking.[2]
  • 1858 – failure to pay.[3]
  • 1966 – in computing.[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. Failure to do what is required, especially to repay a debt or appear in court.
  2. Failure to take part in or complete a contest, as in to win by default.
  3. (computing) An option or value used automatically unless another is chosen.
  4. (archaic) Absence or lack: in default of.

Verb

  1. To fail to do what is required, especially to fail to pay money when due.
  2. To fail to appear in court, or to lose a case by not appearing.
  3. To revert automatically to a preset option.

Word family

  • defaulter
  • undefaulted
  • nondefaulting
  • undefaulting

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press