Etymologically
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faulty

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈfɒlti/, /ˈfɔːlti/[1]
  • US: /ˈfɔlti/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English fauti,[2] formed from English fault + -y.[3][4][5][6] Etymonline, Merriam-Webster and the Shorter Oxford take the noun as its base, the OED the verb,[3][4][5][7] and the OED and the Shorter Oxford think it was perhaps or partly modelled on French fautif,[7][5] from which Johnson derived it.[8] The noun fault is faute, from Old French faute, from Vulgar Latin *fallita (“a shortcoming, falling”), from Latin fallō (“to deceive, disappoint”); the -l- was put back in the 16th century in imitation of Latin.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of immaterial things, containing faults, defective, and of people, guilty of a fault: both in 1380, in Wyclif's works.[7] Of material things it is recorded from 1434.[7]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the adjective also meant lacking or wanting, needy, and out of repair; a London letter book of 1441 calls short-weighted bread fawty.[2] The sense "guilty, to blame" is now obsolete or long rare;[7][5] Collins labels it archaic.[9] Johnson (1755) still listed it first, before "wrong, erroneous" and "defective, not fit for the use intended".[8] The sense "having failings", of people and their character, appears in 1574.[7][5] In English dialects faulty meant rotten or decayed, said of potatoes in Cheshire and Wiltshire, and in Warwickshire and Somerset fault-finding or scolding.[10]

Timeline

  • 1380 – of immaterial things, defective; of people, guilty of a fault.[7]
  • 1434 – of material things, defective.[7]
  • 1441 – of bread, short of weight.[2]
  • 1548 – of the nature of a fault, censurable.[7]
  • 1574 – of people, having failings.[7]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Not working properly or made badly; defective: a faulty smoke alarm.[9][4][7]
  2. Containing mistakes; unsound: The conclusion rests on faulty data.[4][7]
  3. Of people, having failings or apt to do wrong.[4][7][5]
  4. Of the nature of a fault; deserving blame.[7][5]
  5. (archaic) Guilty of a fault; to blame.[9][7][5]

Word family

  • faultily
  • faultiness
  • nonfaulty
  • unfaulty

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  9. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  10. ^ 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)