frailty (n.)

mid-14c., freylte, from Old French fraileté "frailty, weakness," from Latin fragilitatem (nominative fragilitas) "weakness, frailty," from fragilis "fragile" (see fragility). Related: Frailties.

also from mid-14c.

Entries linking to frailty

fragility (n.)

late 14c., "moral weakness," from Old French fragilité "debility, frailty" (12c.), from Latin fragilitatem (nominative fragilitas) "brittleness, weakness," from fragilis "brittle, easily broken," from root of frangere "to break" (from PIE root *bhreg- "to break"). Meaning "quality of being easily broken" is from late 15c.

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adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/. Ngrams are probably unreliable.

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infirmity

late 14c., infirmite, "disease, sickness; lack of capability, weakness," from Old French infirmité, enfermete "illness, sickness, disease; moral weakness," and directly from Latin infirmitatem (nominative infirmitas) "want of strength, weakness, feebleness," also "the weaker sex"

vice

"moral fault, wickedness," c. 1300, from Old French vice "fault, failing, defect, irregularity, misdemeanor" (12c.), from Latin vitium "defect, offense, blemish, imperfection," in both physical and moral senses (in Medieval Latin also vicium; source also of Italian vezzo "usage,

frail

The U.S. slang noun meaning "a woman" is attested from 1908; perhaps with awareness of Shakespeare's "Frailty, thy name is...

reed

Figuratively, as a type of frailty, etc., from early 13c....

condescend

mid-14c., of God, a king., etc., "make gracious allowance" for human frailty, etc.; late 14c., "yield deferentially," from...

veil

c. 1200, "nun's head covering," from Anglo-French and Old North French veil (12c., Modern French voile) "a head-covering," also "a sail, a curtain," from Latin vela, plural of velum "sail, curtain, covering," from PIE root *weg- (1) "to weave a web." Vela was mistaken in Vulgar L

vile

late 13c., "morally repugnant; morally flawed, corrupt, wicked; of no value; of inferior quality; disgusting, foul, ugly; degrading, humiliating; of low estate, without worldly honor or esteem," from Anglo-French ville, Old French vil "shameful, dishonorable; low-born; cheap; ugl

evil

Old English yfel (Kentish evel) "bad, vicious, ill, wicked," from Proto-Germanic *ubilaz (source also of Old Saxon ubil, Old Frisian and Middle Dutch evel, Dutch euvel, Old High German ubil, German übel, Gothic ubils), from PIE *upelo-, from root *wap- "bad, evil" (source also of

live

Middle English liven, from Old English lifian (Anglian), libban (West Saxon) "to be, be alive, have life; continue in life; to experience," also "to supply oneself with food, procure a means of subsistence; pass life in a specified fashion," from Proto-Germanic *libejanan (source

asthenia

"weakness, debility," 1788, medical Latin, from Greek astheneia "want of strength, weakness, feebleness, sickness; a sickness, a disease," from asthenes "weak, without strength, feeble," from a- "not, without" (see a- (3)) + sthenos "strength, power, ability, might," which is of

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updated on September 28, 2017

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Dictionary entries near frailty

fragmentation

fragrance

fragrant

fraidy-cat

frail

frailty

fraktur

framboise

frame

framework

franc