falta

Forms

falta f (plural faltas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *fallita (“a failing, lack”), the feminine of *fallitus, a popular past participle of Latin fallere (“to deceive; to escape notice”) that replaced the classical falsus.^{[2][3][4][1][5]} Petronius already has a vulgar participle fefellitus.^[2][6]

The /f/ and the /l/ before /t/ would not be expected in an inherited Castilian word, but Corominas holds that they are not the mark of a learned word or a loan from Catalan, as Meyer-Lübke thought, and compares falso.^[2][1] Meyer-Lübke's dictionary takes the Spanish and Portuguese words from Catalan falta or falta.^[7][7] It is also uncertain whether the noun or the verb faltar came first: the verb could continue a Vulgar Latin frequentative *fallitare.^[2] García de Diego derives the noun from the verb.^[8] Corominas thinks the noun more likely to be primary, since French faute has no verb beside it, and the verb is recorded later in Occitan and in Spanish.^[2]

The same Vulgar Latin noun is Portuguese falta, and also the Occitan and French nouns.^{[7][1][9][10]} The Latin verb is traced by de Vaan to Proto-Indo-European *(s)gʷʰh₂el- (“to stumble”), cognate with Ancient Greek σφάλλω (sphállō, “to bring down”), with a shift from “stumble” to “deceive”.^[11][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the first record to Berceo, and the BDELC to 1220–1250.^[2][3] In Berceo's Loores de Nuestra Señora, known from an 18th-century copy, it means a fault or sin: si Eva falta fiço, Tú lo as adobado “if Eve committed a fault, you have mended it”.^[12] The first hit in the CDH with a contemporary witness is the Vidal Mayor (c. 1250), where the judge may make good la falta del auocado “the advocate's shortcoming”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish already had the senses “defect” and aver falta “to need”.^[13] Alfonso X's prose uses it for the lack of something and for the breach of an obligation.^[14] Corominas notes that the word was common in every century, though a little less popular in tone than falla.^[2] Nebrija gives both “blame” and “want”, and falta de peso o medida for short weight.^[15][2]

Covarrubias in 1611 records falta as a term of the game of pelota, a lost stroke, with its many kinds, and the faltas of a pregnant woman, the months without her period.^[16] He also gives the proverb Por falta de hombres buenos me hicieron alcalde “they made me mayor for want of good men”.^[16] The Academy's 1843 edition lists hacer falta “to be needed”, sin falta “without fail” and caer en falta “to fail in one's duty”.^[17] In law falta became a minor offence with a light penalty.^[18][4] The sporting sense “foul” is in the Academy's dictionary since 1970, and in Puerto Rico it is felt as an adaptation of English fault.^[19] In southern Chile mis faltas are the things one needs to buy.^[20][21]

Timeline

• 1220–1250 – first record, in Berceo.^[3][2]
• c. 1250 – the Vidal Mayor, the first hit in the CDH with a contemporary witness.^[12]
• 1335 – first record of the verb faltar.^[3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija glosses falta as Latin culpa and defectus.^[15][22]
• 1534 – the first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo: encubrir sus faltas “to cover up their faults”.^[23]
• 1565 – first record of the adjective falto.^[3]
• 1611 – Covarrubias describes the faltas of the game of pelota.^[16]
• 1843 – the Academy lists hacer falta and sin falta.^[17]
• 1970 – the sporting sense “foul” enters the Academy's dictionary.^[19]

Meanings

Noun

1. lack, shortage; the absence of something necessary or useful: Murieron por falta de agua.^[4][1]
2. A breach of an obligation; a fault.^[4][1]
3. The absence of a person from where he or she should be, and the note that records it: Tiene tres faltas este mes.^[4][1]
4. The absence of a person through death or other causes.^[4]
5. A missed period, especially in pregnancy.^[4]
6. A mistake in speech or writing: un dictado lleno de faltas.^[4][1]
7. A defect that a person has or is said to have.^[4]
8. (sports) A ball falling or struck outside the limits; an infringement of the rules, a foul.^[4][1]
9. A coin's shortfall from its legal weight.^[4]
10. (law) A voluntary or negligent breach of a rule, a minor offence.^[4]

Word family

• faltar
• falto
• sacafaltas
• suplefaltas

Related words

• fallido
• fallar
• falla
• falso
• French faute
• Portuguese falta

Usage notes

Common phrases: hacer falta “to be needed”, sin falta “without fail”, echar en falta “to miss”, and a falta de “for want of”, as in the proverb a falta de pan, buenas son tortas.^[4][1][17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 841
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. falta
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. falta
5. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 301
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. *fallita
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 2666
9. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 1522
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. falta
13. ^ Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 250
14. ^ Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. falta
15. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 353
16. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 830
17. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 337
18. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 349
19. ^ a b Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. falta
20. ^ Román, Manuel Antonio (1901–1918), Diccionario de chilenismos y de otras voces y locuciones viciosas, 5 vols., Santiago de Chile: Imprenta de San José, p. 354
21. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 635
22. ^ Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. falta
23. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. falta