| 释义 |
fallible, a.|ˈfælɪb(ə)l|
Also 6–7 fallable.
[ad. late L. fallibilis, f. fallĕre to deceive: see -ble. Cf. F. faillible.
The L. word appears in Papias (11th c.) with the active sense ‘deceitful’; in late med.L. it has the passive sense ‘deceivable’.]
1. Of persons or their faculties: Liable to be deceived or mistaken; liable to err.
1430Lydg. Chron. Troy i. vi, I suppose her connyng was fallible. 1638Penit. Conf. vii. (1657) 135 He is fallible, and often erring in judgment. 1699Burnet 39 Art. xxxiii. (1700) 364 An Authority to which no fallible Body of men can have a Right. 1763Johnson in Boswell Life (1831) I. 391 A fallible being will fail somewhere. 1855Milman Lat. Chr. (1864) V. ix. ii. 206 The papal power..the representative of fallible man rather than of the infallible God. 1881W. Collins Bl. Robe i. iii. 142 These rebuffs are wholesome reminders of his fallible human nature.
2. Of rules, opinions, arguments, etc.: Liable to be erroneous, unreliable.
a1420Hoccleve De Reg. Princ. 2867 This worldes joye is transitorie, And the truste on it slipir and fallible. 1534More in Ellis Orig. Lett. i. 117 II. 52 The fallible opinion..of lightsome chaungeable peple. c1555Harpsfield Divorce Hen. VIII (1878) 164 This argument..is but a fallable argument. 1603Shakes. Meas. for M. iii. i. 170 Do not satisfie your resolution with hopes that are fallible. 1643Sir T. Browne Relig. Med. i. 23 The..fallible discourses of man upon the word of God. 1677W. Hubbard Narrative ii. 1 Uncertain and fallible Reports. 1736Butler Anal. ii. viii. 393 The rules..of preserving health..are not only fallible and precarious. 1851Herschel Stud. Nat. Phil. iii. iii. 286 A slow and painful process if rightly gone into, and a very fallible one if only partially executed.
†b. Not determinable with certainty. Obs. rare.
1664Power Exp. Philos. iii. 166 This Angle of Variation being quite fallible, and alwayes variable.
†3. Fallacious, delusive. Obs. rare.
1559Morwyng Evonym. 176 Suche waters..make a fallible image of youth.
4. quasi-n. One who is fallible. rare.
1705Hickeringill Priest-cr. Wks. (1716) 79 She [Queen Elizabeth] over-liv'd this infallible fallible [Pope Pius V]. 1846G. S. Faber Lett. Tractar. Secess. Popery 164 All these fallibles are added up together in one sum which shall collectively constitute the Church.
Hence ˈfallibleness = fallibility.
1648Hammond To Ld. Fairfax 19 The weaknesse and falliblenesse of these few principles. 1730–6in Bailey (folio). |