English
failance
Failance comes from Old French faillance, from falir ‘to fail’, and ultimately from Latin fallō ‘to deceive, beguile, trick, cheat, delude,…’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfallōas fallere‘to deceive, beguile, trick, cheat, delude, ensnare, disappoint’
- Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CE*fallīre‘fail’reconstructed
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400faliras faillir‘to fail’
- Old French, derivedc. 842–1400faillance
- Englishearliest quotation 1810failance
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfallōas fallere‘to deceive, beguile, trick, cheat, delude, ensnare, disappoint’
- Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CE*fallīre‘fail’reconstructed
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400faliras faillir‘to fail’
- Old French, derivedc. 842–1400faillance
- Englishearliest quotation 1810failance
Earliest quotation: 1810, John Fell, Henry Hammond: “[…] always made it necessary for him not to…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *(s)gʷʰh₂el- ‘to stumble’
through Proto-Italic *falsō
default, falsely, falsetto, 5 more
through Latin fallō ‘to deceive, beguile, trick, cheat, delude,…’
fault, false, faux, fallacy, fallible, falsify, fallacious, falsity, 7 more
through Old French falir ‘to fail’
Today it means
noun fault; failure; omission
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin fallō / failance