/foible/

 

/foible/

 

Noun.

 

-) Plural: foibles.

 

-) Pronunciation and accent: fɔɪb(ə)l.

 

-) Etymology: from French foible, obsolete form of faible (= feeble), from Latin flebilis (= lamentable, wretched) from flere (= to weep).

 

-) It is dated from the end of 1600.

 

Definition: customary action in a person which makes him vulnerable to expressions of disapproval; a particular in someone’s personality which renders him disapprovable or weak in personal strength.

 

-) Synonyms for foible: demerit, imperfection, weakness, weak point, frailty, defect.

 

-) Translation: faiblesse, in French; debilidad, in Spanish; debolezza, in Italian.

Prolixity was one of her grand foibles.

Alfred Spencer… Memoirs… 1749-1775

There were they wont to sit for hours after the return from a ball, discussing the people they had met, their dress, their manner, their foibles and flirtations.

Charles Lever… Roland Cashel 1858

 Over our coffee in the Turkish room Minver was usually a censor of our several foibles rather than a sharer in our philosophic speculations and metaphysical conjectures.

William Howells… The Daughter… 1915

-) English words derived from Latin flere: feeble, feebleness, feebling, feeblish, feebly.