English
fail
Fail comes from Middle English failen, from Old French falir ‘to fail’, from Vulgar Latin *fallīre, from Latin fallō ‘to deceive, disappoint’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfallō1‘to deceive’
- Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CE*fallīre1reconstructed
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400falir1‘to fail’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500failen1
- Englishearliest quotation 1577fail1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English fail
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1577, Raphaell Holinshed, The Historie of Englande: “If they ſhoulde gyue battayle it was to be…”.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfallōWiktionary, English fail‘to deceive’
- Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CE*fallīreWiktionary, English failreconstructed
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400falirWiktionary, English fail‘to fail’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500failenWiktionary, English fail
- Englishearliest quotation 1577failWiktionary, English fail. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1577, Raphaell Holinshed, The Historie of Englande: “If they ſhoulde gyue battayle it was to be…”
The story
Inherited from Middle English failen, borrowed from Old French falir, from Vulgar Latin *fallire, alteration of Latin fallere (‘to deceive, disappoint’), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰāl- (‘to lie, deceive’) or Proto-Indo-European *(s)gʷʰh₂el- (‘to stumble’).
Word family
English words that share an ancestor with fail, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.
through Proto-Indo-European *(s)gʷʰh₂el- ‘to stumble, misstep’
through Proto-Italic *falsō
- fault ← faute ← faute ← *fallita ← falsus
- false ← fals ← falsus ← fallō
- faux ← faulx ← fals ← falsus ← fallō
- fallacy ← fallaci ← fallace ← fallācia ← fallāx
- fallacious ← fallacieux ← fallācia ← fallāx ← fallō
- fallible ← fallibilis ← fallō
- falsify ← falsifier ← falsificāre ← falsificus ← falsus
- falsity ← fausseté ← falsitas ← falsus ← fallō
15 more relatives in the full family tree
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Today it means
verb To be unsuccessful.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “fail”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Latin fallō / fail