Fault

Fault - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

FAULT, n. [See Fail.]

1. Properly, an erring or missing; a failing; hence, an error or mistake; a blunder; a defect; a blemish; whatever impairs excellence; applied to things.

2. In morals or deportment, any error or defect; an imperfection; any deviation from propriety; a slight offense; a neglect of duty or propriety, resulting from inattention or want of prudence, rather than from design to injure or offend, but liable to censure or objection.

I do remember my faults this day. Gen 41.

If a man be overtaken in a fault, ye who are spiritual, restore such as one in the spirit of meekness. Gal 6.

Fault implies wrong, and often some degree of criminality.

3. Defect; want; absence. [Not now used. See Default.]

I could tell to thee, as to one if pleases me, for fault of a better to call my friend.

4. Puzzle; difficulty.

Among sportsmen, when dogs lose the scent, they are said to be at fault. Hence the phrase, the inquirer is at fault.

5. In mining, a fissure in strata, causing a dislocation of the same, and thus interrupting the course of veins.

To find fault, to express blame; to complain.

Thou wilt say then, why doth he yet find fault? Rom 9.

To find fault with, to blame; to censure; as, to find fault with the times, or with a neighbor's conduct.

FAULT, v.i. To fail; to be wrong. [Not used.]

FAULT, v.t. To charge with a fault; to accuse.

For that I will not fault thee.

folt (chaTa'; aitia, memphomai): Implies defect, of less moral weight than crime or sin. It is the translation of chaTa', "error," "failure," "sin" (Ex 5:16); of cheT', same meaning (Ge 41:9, "I do remember my faults this day"); of `awon, "perversity," "iniquity" (2Sa 3:8; Ps 59:4); of rish`ah, "wrongness," "wickedness" (De 25:2, the Revised Version (British and American) "wickedness"); of shechath (Aramaic) "corruption" (Da 6:4 twice); me'umah, "anything" (1Sa 29:3, "no fault in him," literally, "not anything"); of aitia, "cause," "case," "guilt," (Joh 18:38; 19:4,6; Pilate of Jesus, "I find no fault in him," the Revised Version (British and American) "no crime"; the same word is rendered "accusation," i.e. `legal cause for prosecution,' Mt 27:37; Mr 15:26; compare Ac 25:18,27); of aition, same meaning (Lu 23:4,14; 23:22, aition thanatou "cause of death"); of hettema, "a worse condition," "defect" (1Co 6:7, the Revised Version (British and American) "a defect," margin "a loss to you"); of paraptoma, "a falling aside" (Ga 6:1, "If a man be overtaken in fault," the Revised Version (British and American) "in any trespass," margin "by"; Jas 5:16, "Confess your faults one to another," the Revised Version (British and American) "Confess therefore your sins one to another"); hamartano, "to miss," "err," "sin," is translated "your faults" (1Pe 2:20 the Revised Version (British and American), "when ye sin"); memphomai, "to blame," is translated "to find fault" (Mr 7:2 omitted the Revised Version (British and American); Ro 9:19; Heb 8:8); elegcho, "to convict," "to tell one's fault" (Mt 18:15, the Revised Version (British and American) "show him his fault"); amomos, "without blemish," "spotless," is translated "without fault" (Re 14:5, the Revised Version (British and American) "without blemish," "faultless"; Jude 1:24, "able to present you faultless," the Revised Version (British and American) "without blemish"); amemptos, "blameless," "without reproach" (Heb 8:7, "for if that first covenant had been faultless"). "Faulty" is the translation of 'ashem, "guilty" (2Sa 14:13, "as one which is faulty," the Revised Version (British and American) "guilty"); of 'asham, "to be or become guilty" (Ho 10:2, Revised Version "guilty").

W. L. Walker