frailty

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English frelete, also freelte and frailte,^[2][3][1] borrowed from Anglo-Norman freleté, also frailleté,^[4] and Old French fraileté,^[5][6][7][8] from Latin fragilitās (“weakness, frailty”),^[5][4][9] which is formed from fragilis (“fragile, easily broken”) and the suffix -itās.^[3][6] The Old French word is recorded from the late 12th century, first as fraileteit and in the sense of moral weakness, then of physical weakness in the 13th century.^[4] The OED notes that the English word was later apparently remodelled after the adjective frail.^[4] The Latin noun also gave English fragility.^[5][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Physical weakness or the state of being mortal: in the early Wycliffite Bible (c. 1384), where it renders Latin infirmitas in a verse of Hebrews.^[4][2] Etymonline dates the word to the mid-14th century,^[5] and the 1989 edition of the OED dated the moral sense to before 1340.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Both the bodily and the moral sense were present in Middle English: within a few years of the Wycliffite record the word meant a particular moral failing (c. 1390) and the general weakness of giving in to temptation, especially sexual temptation (before 1400).^[4] Chaucer used freletee six times, for moral weakness or sinfulness.^[11] The Oxford Dictionary of English gives the moral sense as the original one.^[7] From about 1450 the word was also used of abstract things, for being transient or easily harmed.^[4] Mapping Metaphor places it among words that describe weakness of mind and moral evil in terms of bodily strength, a link made from the 13th and 14th centuries.^[12] Johnson (1755) defined it as "weakness of resolution; instability of mind; infirmity", quoting Shakespeare.^[13] Hamlet's line "Frailty, thy name is woman" (1602) became a set phrase alluding to a supposed weakness of character in women.^[14]

Timeline

• c. 1384 – physical weakness; mortal nature.^[4][2]
• c. 1390 – a moral failing, a weakness of character.^[4]
• before 1400 – moral weakness, readiness to yield to temptation.^[4]
• c. 1450 – of abstract things, transience, being easily harmed.^[4]
• 1602 – Frailty, thy name is woman, in Shakespeare's Hamlet.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. The quality or state of being frail; physical weakness or infirmity: Her growing frailty kept her indoors all winter.^[3][15][4]
2. Weakness of something abstract; flimsiness or tenuousness: the frailty of the ceasefire.^[3][4]
3. A fault or foible that comes from weakness, especially of moral character: He forgave his friends their frailties.^[16][15][6]
4. Moral weakness; readiness to give in to temptation.^[4][6][13]

Related words

• frail
• fragile
• fragility
• frailness

References

1. ^ a b c 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 d 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
12. ^ Mapping Metaphor with the Historical Thesaurus, University of Glasgow, mappingmetaphor.arts.gla.ac.uk
13. ^ 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.
14. ^ a b Martin, Gary, The Phrase Finder: Meaning and Origin of Phrases, Sayings, Clichés and Quotes, https://www.phrases.org.uk
15. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
16. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster