English
failure
Nearest English gloss
an attempt that did not do what it was for
What the gloss loses
Modern English slides toward identity: you are a failure. This Guide keeps the older, narrower sense: a particular attempt did not work. The person may still be in the room.
Etymology
From Old French falir, to be lacking, to miss, from Latin fallere, to deceive. The English noun later covers collapse, a grade, a machine that will not start, and a person treated as a verdict.
History
A null result, a death, a grant refused, an ethics collapse. Survivorship bias will try to hire every failure as a later triumph. We decline some of those hires.
What changes when the attempt does not work?