We explain what failure is and the origin of the term. Also, what is its specific meaning in different contexts.
What is failure?
In everyday language, we understand failure as the opposite of success, that is, as a synonym for defeat, ruin or fall. In fact, the first meaning offered by the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy points to the “adverse result of a company or business”, that is, that the failure is that which goes irremediably wrong in any field.
Therefore, defining failure can be as complex and difficult as defining success, since Its meaning depends largely on the context .
Historically, the word failure comes from Italian Low Latin. I will failwhose approximate translation would be “to break something into pieces”, associating from early moments the notion of failure with that of accident, that is, with that which happens without us expecting it and that brings with it negative and definitive considerations.
In fact, not every accident is a failure, and for that we have the word serendipitywhich describes a lucky accident; But it is true that the emotional and sentimental associations that unfortunate accidents arouse are the basis for understanding what failure is.
Thus, when we talk about failure we are referring to something that we experience in disastrous, catastrophic terms or, at least, contrary to our desire. Failure is an unfortunate situation that has no compunction or compunction: an athlete who is defeated by his rival, an army that is massacred in combat, or simply a business that fails to be profitable and goes bankrupt, to name a few possible examples. .
What is particular about the notion of failure is that, in most of its senses, tends to emphasize responsibility for failure, paying little attention to random details or contextual.
Therefore, in a culture oriented towards success and innovation such as that of industrial capitalism of the 20th and 21st centuries, along with the idea of failure, the idea of failure is used: a person who fails to succeed, which has an impact on the way in which society evaluates their talents, their intelligence, their abilities. It is not in vain that this term, “failed,” is used as an insult in numerous contexts (such as the popular loser coming from English).
Instead, In other contexts, failure or failure is linked to the notion of system as is the case in the medical field: when we talk about “acute kidney failure”, for example, it refers to the sudden and definitive cessation of functions of said organs (the kidneys), without any type of person being considered responsible.
Even when it is said that a surgical intervention “was a failure”, there is no tendency to emphasize the doctor's inability, nor to blame him for what happened, whether or not it is actually his responsibility.
Finally, the idea of failing can be linked to certain emotional pathologies such as atychiphobia or “fear of failure”, which consists of a paralyzing and frustrating fear of adverse outcomes, which prevents the person from taking risks or carrying out actions with which they could possibly achieve success, sometimes even with relative ease .
References
- “Failure” on Wikipedia.
- “Failure” in the Language Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy.
- “Etymology of Fail” in the Online Spanish Etymological Dictionary (Chile).
- “What's failure anyways?” at The Failure Institute.
