faute

See also: fauté

French

Etymology

From Old French faute, from Vulgar Latin *fallita, feminine of *fallitus, in place of Latin falsus, perfect passive participle of fallō. Compare Catalan, Spanish, and Portuguese falta. Doublet of faillite. Compare English fault and Spanish falta (“lack, shortage”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fot/

• audio

  (file)

Noun

faute f (plural fautes)

1. error, mistake

   une faute d'orthographe ― a spelling mistake

   C'est la faute à pas de chance. ― .

2. fault, blame

   c'est de ma faute ― I'm to blame (literally, “it's my fault”)

   c'est toujours la faute aux autres ― other people are always to blame (literally, “it's always other people's fault”)

   il rejette la faute sur son patron ― he laid/put the blame on his boss

3. (law) wrong, misdemeanor
4. (sports) foul, fault (infraction of the rules)

Derived terms

• faute de

Further reading

• “faute” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

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Latin

Participle

faute

1. vocative masculine singular of fautus

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Old French

Etymology

From Vulgar Latin *fallita, feminine of *fallitus, in place of Latin falsus, perfect passive participle of fallō.

Noun

faute f (oblique plural fautes, nominative singular faute, nominative plural fautes)

1. fault; error; mistake

Descendants

• English: fault (borrowed)
• French: faute
• Irish: fabht (borrowed)