Etymologically
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defect

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈdiːfekt/, /dɪˈfekt/[1]

Etymology

The noun is borrowed from Latin dēfectus (“failure, absence, deficiency, shortcoming”),[2][3][4] the noun use of the past participle of dēficiō (“to fail, desert, be wanting, revolt”),[5][2][6] from dē- (“down, away”) and faciō (“to make, do”),[5][3][4] from Proto-Indo-European *dhē- (“to set, put”).[5][3] Barnhart, Etymonline and the Shorter Oxford add that it came partly through Middle French defect (“deficiency”),[6][5][7] and Merriam-Webster gives a Middle English form defaicte;[8] the OED's revised entry (2016) derives it from Latin only, comparing the earlier default.[2] The verb is from dēfectus too, the past participle of the same verb;[8][5][2] the OED notes that in post-classical Latin the noun also meant moral deficiency (5th century) and default (13th century).[2] An adjective defect, defective, came from the same Latin participle in the late 14th century, and in later use probably also from German defekt.[2] Klein compares deficit.[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The adjective, disfigured, is recorded first, before 1398 in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus.[2] The noun is first a lack of something necessary, a deficiency: before 1425 (?), in a translation of Guy de Chauliac's Grande Chirurgie,[2] probably before 1425 in Barnhart.[6]

Semantic evolution

The noun at first meant a lack or want; from about 1450 it also meant an imperfection or flaw in a person or thing,[2][6][5] the main sense today.[8][10] Johnson (1755) gave "want; absence of something necessary" as its first sense.[11] The noun had also briefly meant a defection (1540 to 1798) and an eclipse (1571 to 1804).[2] Later technical senses are a naval list of repairs needed (1747) and an irregularity in a crystal lattice (1936).[2] The verb, from the Latin participle, first meant to hurt or damage (1542), then to fall short (1587 to 1652);[2][5] since 1596 it has meant to desert a cause or party for another,[2][5] the sense that survives.[8] In the Cold War it came to mean leaving a communist country for a Western one, or the reverse (1950).[2]

Timeline

  • before 1398 – adjective, disfigured.[2]
  • before 1425 – noun, a lack or deficiency.[2][6]
  • c. 1450 – an imperfection or flaw.[2][6]
  • 1542 – verb, to hurt or damage.[2]
  • 1587 – verb, to fail or fall short (obsolete by 1652).[2][8]
  • 1596 – verb, to desert a person, party or cause.[2]
  • 1936 – an irregularity in a crystal lattice.[2]
  • 1950 – to leave a communist country for a non-communist one, or the reverse.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An imperfection or flaw that spoils something or makes it fail: a defect in the wiring.[8][10][2]
  2. A shortcoming or failing in a person: a defect of character.[8][10]
  3. A lack of something needed for completeness; a deficiency.[10][2]
  4. (crystallography) A local irregularity in a crystal lattice.[10][2]

Verb

  1. To desert one's country, party or cause, especially for an opposing one: Two officers defected to the other side.[8][10][2]
  2. (obsolete, 1587–1652) To fail or fall short.[8][2]

Word family

  • defection
  • defector
  • defectible
  • defectibility
  • defectless
  • nondefecting
  • indefectible
  • redefect

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  7. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  10. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.