Etymograph

English

failsoft

From fail + soft.

A compound of fail + soft

Latin fallō ‘to deceive’

Vulgar Latin *fallīre

Old French falir ‘to fail’

Middle English failen

English fail

Proto-West Germanic *samft(ī) ‘level’

Old English sōfte

Middle English softe ‘soft’

English soft

Today it means

adj Supporting graceful degradation, so that a partial failure does not bring down the entire system.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / failsoft