Meaning

noun a wrong action attributable to bad judgment or ignorance or inattention

noun an imperfection in an object or machine

noun the quality of being inadequate or falling short of perfection

originFrom Middle English faute, faulte, from Anglo-Norman faute, Old French faute, from Vulgar Latin *fallita (“shortcoming”), feminine of *fallitus, in place of Latin falsus, perfect passive participle of fallō (“deceive”). Displaced native Middle English schuld, schuild (“fault”) (from Old English scyld (“fault”)), Middle English lac (“fault, lack”) (from Middle Dutch lak (“lack, fault”)), Middle…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0