fault

Pronunciation

• IPA: /fɔːlt/, /fɒlt/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English faute, faulte,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French faute (“opening, gap; failure, flaw; lack, deficiency”), earlier falte,^[4][2] from Vulgar Latin *fallita (“a shortcoming, falling”),^[4][2][5] the noun use of the feminine of *fallitus, which replaced Latin falsus as the past participle of fallere (“to deceive, disappoint”).^[2][3][6] The -l- was restored in the 15th and 16th centuries in imitation of Latin,^[4][2] but was silent until the 18th century: in Pope and Swift fault rhymes with thought, and Johnson (1755) said the l was not heard in conversation.^[4][2] It is related to fail, false and default.^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

“Deficiency, lack, scarcity”: about 1280 in Barnhart,^[2] before 1300 in the OED^[8] and the late 13th century in Etymonline.^[4]

Semantic evolution

A physical defect or imperfection is from the early 14th century,^[4][2] about 1320 in the OED,^[8] and moral culpability, milder than sin or vice but more serious than an error, from the late 14th century.^[4][8] The tennis fault (about 1600) is closer to the root sense.^[4] To a fault, to excess, is from 1752.^[8] The geological sense, a break in rock strata, is from 1796.^[4][6] The verb, “to be deficient”, is Scottish, about 1375,^[2][4] and “to find fault with, blame” is from about 1450.^[2][4] Faulty is from about 1380.^[2] In Scottish, Irish and English dialect, faut was still common.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 1280 – lack, deficiency.^[2]
• c. 1320 – a defect.^[8]
• c. 1375 – verb, to be lacking.^[2]
• late 14th century – moral culpability.^[4][8]
• c. 1450 – verb, to blame.^[2][4]
• c. 1600 – in tennis.^[4]
• 1796 – in geology.^[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A weakness of character, especially a minor one.
2. A defect or imperfection; a flaw.
3. A mistake or error; a minor offence.
4. Responsibility for a mistake or offence; blame: it's my fault.
5. In geology, a fracture in rock along which one side has moved relative to the other.
6. In tennis and similar games, a serve that is not good.
7. In electricity, a defect in a circuit.

Verb

1. To find fault with; to criticize or blame.
2. To produce a fault in, or to shift so as to produce one.

Word family

• faultfinder
• faultfinding
• faultless
• fault-tolerant
• faulty
• footfault
• no-fault
• postfault

Related words

• default
• fail
• false
• failure

Usage notes

The American Heritage distinguishes fault, a trait that detracts from moral excellence, from failing, weakness, frailty, foible, vice, blame and blemish.^[10]

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 l m n Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin