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Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

fallible

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster

Arts, Literature, Language Courses, Education

4.31.2K Ratings

🗓️ 12 September 2023

⏱️ 2 minutes

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Summary

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 12, 2023 is:

fallible • \FAL-uh-bul\  • adjective

Fallible means “capable of making mistakes or being wrong.”

// We can be too hard on ourselves at times and often need gentle reminders that everyone is fallible.

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Examples:

“AI is fallible. We see biased responses. ... This is because of how AI models are trained—in other words, it’s because of the data. Skewed data will lead to skewed results and misrepresentations.” — Kevin Collins, Forbes, 8 June 2023

Did you know?

Humanum est errare” is a Latin expression that translates as “To err is human.” Of course, cynics might say that it is also human to deceive. The history of the word fallible simultaneously recognizes both of these character flaws. In modern usage, fallible refers to one’s ability to make mistakes, but it descends from the Latin verb fallere, which means “to deceive.” Fallible has been used to describe the potential for error since at least the 15th century. Other descendants of fallere in English, all of which actually predate fallible, include fallacy (the earliest, now obsolete, meaning was “guile, trickery”), fault, false, and even fjail. Whoops, we mean fail.



Transcript

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0:00.0

It's Merriam Webster's Word of the Day for September 12th.

0:11.3

Today's word is fallible, spelled F-A-L-L-I-B-L-E. Fallible is an adjective.

0:18.2

It means capable of making mistakes or being wrong.

0:21.3

Here's the word used in a sentence from Forbes by Kevin Collins.

0:25.7

A.I. is fallible. We see biased responses.

0:29.6

This is because of how A.I. models are trained.

0:32.6

In other words, it's because of the data.

0:35.0

Skewed data will lead to skewed results and misrepresentations.

0:40.0

Humanum est erare, is a Latin expression that translates as to air is human.

0:48.0

Of course, cynics might say that it's also human to deceive.

0:52.6

The history of the word fallible simultaneously recognizes both of these character flaws.

0:58.3

In modern usage, fallible refers to one's ability to make mistakes,

1:02.8

but it descends from the Latin verb fallere, which means to deceive.

1:07.8

Fallible has been used to describe the potential for error since at least the 15th century.

1:13.1

Other descendants of fallere in English, all of which actually predate fallible,

1:18.2

include fallacy, the earliest now obsolete meaning was guile or trickery,

1:23.8

fault, false, and even the word fail.

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