frailty

English

Etymology

From Middle English frelete, frailte, from Old French fraileté, from Latin fragilitās. By surface analysis, frail +‎ -ty. Doublet of fragility.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfɹeɪ(ə)lti/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

frailty (countable and uncountable, plural frailties)

1. (uncountable) The condition quality of being frail, physically, mentally, or morally; weakness of resolution; liability to be deceived.

   Synonyms: frailness, infirmity

   • 1748, David Hume, Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of moral., London: Oxford University Press, published 1973, § 36, n. 1:

     the limitations and restraints of civil government, and a legal constitution, may be defended, either from reason, which reflecting on the great frailty and corruption of human nature, teaches, that no man can safely be trusted with unlimited authority ;

   • 2011 October 29, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea 3 - 5 Arsenal”, in BBC Sport‎^[1]:

     For all their frailty at the back, Arsenal possessed genuine menace in attack and they carved through Chelsea with ease to restore parity nine minutes before half-time. Aaron Ramsey's pass was perfection and Gervinho took the unselfish option to set up Van Persie for a tap-in.

2. A fault proceeding from weakness; foible; sin of infirmity.

Related terms

• frail

Translations

condition of being frail

• Catalan: fragilitat f
• Czech: křehkost (cs) f, slabost (cs) f
• Dutch: zwakheid (nl)
• Esperanto: fragileco
• Finnish: hauraus (fi), heiveröisyys
• French: fragilité (fr) f
• German: Schwäche (de) f, Zerbrechlichkeit (de) f
• Irish: aibrisce f, anbhainne f, laige f, leochaileacht f, neamhsheasmhacht f
• Italian: fragilità (it) f
• Japanese: もろさ (morosa)
• Maori: kopītanga
• Middle English: febilte, feblesse, feblenesse
• Occitan: fragilitat (oc) f
• Ottoman Turkish: درمانسزلق (dermansızlık)
• Portuguese: fragilidade (pt) f
• Serbo-Croatian: oronulost (sh) f, slabost (sh) f
• Spanish: fragilidad (es) f
• Turkish: zaaf (tr), düşkünlük (tr)

References

• “frailty”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.