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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.
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