Word of the Day for Friday, August 3, 2012

foible \FOI-buhl\, noun:
1. A minor weakness or failing of character; slight flaw or defect: an all-too-human foible.
2. The weaker part of a sword blade, between the middle and the point (opposed to forte).

Irascibility was his sole foible; for in fact the obstinacy of which men accused him was anything but his foible, since he justly considered it his forte.
-- Edgar Allan Poe, "X-ing a Paragrab", "Poetry and Tales"

I fear, on the contrary, if they came under your examination, there is not one in whom you would not discern some foible!
-- Fanny Burney, "Camilla"

Related to the word feeble, foible is derived from the Latin word flēbilis which meant "lamentable."

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