defaute

Middle English

Alternative forms

• defaut, defawt, defauȝte, defauȝt, defaulte, default, defalte, defalt, diffaute, diffaught

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French defaute.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dɛːˈfau̯t(ə)/

Noun

defaute (plural defautes)

1. 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.

2. failure to do something
3. absence, failure to appear somewhere, especially (law) failure to appear in court
4. lieu, stead, place
5. need, poverty
6. defect, blemish, flaw
7. mistake, error
8. crime, sin, wrong act
9. fault, guilt, culpability, responsibility for something bad
10. eclipse (of the sun)
11. wane (of the moon)
12. ebb (of the sea)

Derived terms

• defauten
• defautif
• defautles
• defauty

 

Descendants

• English: default

References

• “dēfaut(e, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2023-11-10.

Old French

Noun

defaute oblique singular, f (oblique plural defautes, nominative singular defaute, nominative plural defautes)

1. lack; absence

Descendants

• Middle English: defaute, defaut, defawt, defauȝte, defauȝt, defaulte, default, defalte, defalt, diffaute, diffaught
  • English: default
• French: défaut
  • → Turkish: defo

References

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (defaute)