Etymology

fail-deadly

fail-dead·ly

Today it means: Of a nuclear weapons strategy: encouraging deterrence by guaranteeing an automatic, immediate, and overwhelming response to an attack, even if the command-and-control infrastructure has been damaged by the enemy's first strike. Full definition →

English deadly ← Middle English dedly ← Old English dēadlīċ
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*(s)gʷʰh₂el-
  2. Proto-Italic*falsō?
  3. Classical Latinfallere
  4. Vulgar Latin*fallīre
  5. Old Frenchfalir
  6. Middle Englishfailen
  7. Englishfail
  8. Proto-Indo-European*dʰew-
  9. Proto-Germanic*dawjaną
  10. Proto-Germanic*daudaz
  11. Proto-West Germanic*daud
  12. Old Englishdēad
  13. Proto-Indo-European*leyg-
  14. Proto-Germanic*līką
  15. Old Englishdēadlīċ
  16. Middle Englishdedly
  17. Englishdeadly
  18. English todayfail-deadly

From fail (verb) + deadly, modelled on fail-safe.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.