Janna Malamud Smith
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Many word lovers agree that the pen is mightier than the sword. But be they honed in wit or form, even the sharpest tools in the shed have their flaws. That’s where foible comes in handy. Borrowed from French in the 1600s, the word originally referred to the weakest part of a fencing sword, that part being the portion between the middle and the pointed tip. The English foible soon came to be applied not only to weaknesses in blades but also to minor failings in character. The French source of foible is also at a remove from the fencing arena; the French foible means "weak," and it comes from the same Old French term, feble, that gave us feeble.
Synonyms
Examples of foible in a Sentence
Siddhant Adlakha, Variety, 26 Feb. 2024
The sum of its parts is a cogent mashup of studies and stats on self-esteem filtered through Nancherla’s personal experience, crafting a portrait of the social foibles that make and break her (and many of us).
—Meredith Maran, Los Angeles Times, 18 Sep. 2023
Ellen Gilchrist, a Southern writer with a sharp, sometimes indulgent eye for her region’s foibles and eccentricities, died on Jan. 30 at her home in Ocean Springs, Miss.
—Adam Nossiter, New York Times, 11 Feb. 2024
His October bullpen foibles have become something of legend, each memory so painful as to require only a few words of description.
—Bill Plaschke, Los Angeles Times, 3 Mar. 2024
Poitier himself grew frustrated that he was so often cast as a paragon of virtue, devoid of human foibles or desires.
—Chris Klimek, Smithsonian Magazine, 1 Mar. 2024
All the recent hit shows are about human beings with all their foibles.
—Marta Balaga, Variety, 20 Feb. 2024
Athill doesn’t treat her foibles and losses—of love, of money, of caste, of certainty—as traumas, events that would define her life as troubled and scarring.
—Hillary Kelly, The New Yorker, 21 Feb. 2024
There are a variety of reasons for the Times' recent foibles, including numerous financial issues that have plagued the paper.
—Justin Klawans, theweek, 25 Jan. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'foible.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Foible.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/foible. Accessed 20 Apr. 2024.
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