defaute
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Middle English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Borrowed from Old French defaute.
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
defaute (plural defautes)
- lack, absence
- c. 1368, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Book of the Duchess, as recorded c. 1440–1450 in Bodleian Library MS. Fairfax 16, folio 130r:
- I have so many an ydel thoght / Purely for defaulte of slepe / That by my trouthe I take no kepe / Of noo thinge how hyt cometh or gooth / Ne me nys no thynge leve nor looth
- I have so many idle thoughts / Purely from lack of sleep / That I swear I take no heed / Of anything, whether it comes or goes, / And nothing is either dear to me or hated.
- c. 1368, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Book of the Duchess, as recorded c. 1440–1450 in Bodleian Library MS. Fairfax 16, folio 130r:
- failure to do something
- absence, failure to appear somewhere, especially (law) failure to appear in court
- lieu, stead, place
- need, poverty
- defect, blemish, flaw
- mistake, error
- crime, sin, wrong act
- fault, guilt, culpability, responsibility for something bad
- eclipse (of the sun)
- wane (of the moon)
- ebb (of the sea)
Derived terms[edit]
Descendants[edit]
- English: default
References[edit]
- “dēfaut(e, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2023-11-10.
Old French[edit]
Noun[edit]
defaute oblique singular, f (oblique plural defautes, nominative singular defaute, nominative plural defautes)
Descendants[edit]
- Middle English: defaute, defaut, defawt, defauȝte, defauȝt, defaulte, default, defalte, defalt, diffaute, diffaught
- English: default
References[edit]
- Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IXe au XVe siècle (1881) (defaute)