Learn English – Are “fault” and “default” etymologically related

etymology

Fault and default sound rather similar to me as a German, but are they really related?

I am interested in default as used in default value for some configurable setting in computer programs.

Best Answer

Fault

late 13c., faute,
"deficiency," from O.Fr. faute (12c.)
"opening, gap; failure, flaw, blemish; lack, deficiency," from V.L. *fallita "a shortcoming, falling," noun use of fem. pp., from L. falsus
"deceptive, feigned, spurious," pp. of fallere "deceive, disappoint" (see false).

The -l- was restored 16c., probably in imitation of Latin, but was not pronounced till 18c.

Sense of "physical defect" is from early 14c.;
that of "moral culpability" is first recorded late 14c.
Geological sense is from 1796.
The use in tennis (c.1600) is closer to the etymological sense.

Default

early 13c., "offense, crime, sin," later (late 13c.) "failure, failure to act," from O.Fr. defaute (12c.)
"fault, defect, failure, culpability, lack, privation," from V.L. *defallita "a deficiency or failure," pp. of *defallere, from L. de- "away" (see de-) + fallere
"to deceive, to cheat; to put wrong, to lead astray, cause to be mistaken; to escape notice of, be concealed from" (see fail).
The financial sense is first recorded 1858; the computing sense is from 1966.

Wikipedia says

The Oxford English Dictionary dates this usage to the mid-1960s, as a variant of the older meaning of "failure in performance".

[bold is mine]

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