What is fallible?

What Does fallible Mean

The term fallible derives from the Latin fallĕre , which can be translated as "deceive . " Its most distant etymological antecedent, however, is found in the low Latin fallibilis .

This adjective is used with reference to that or that which can fail or incur a fault . The fallible, therefore, is neither perfect nor does it guarantee efficacy. For example: "The tournament organizers announced that they will modify the competition method since they consider that the current system is fallible" , "This antivirus program is fallible because many times it does not recognize the malicious files that can cause an infection" , "The forward , who does not usually fail in this type of situation, proved to be fallible and wasted a clear chance to score ” .

Every human being is fallible since he can make mistakes . Depending on the context and action in question, failures can be minor or very serious.
Take the case of a neurosurgeon (a doctor who specializes in surgeries on the nervous system). Because the life of his patients depends on his actions, the ideal would be for this professional to be infallible: that is, he could not fail. However, being fallible like anyone else , there are chances of error in his activity. Through study, experience, teamwork and technology, the neurosurgeon will try to reduce these probabilities as much as possible.
Let's take a look, on the other hand, on the subject of free throw shots in basketball ( basketball ). For some players, shooting is relatively easy; for others, much more difficult. All basketball players, however, are fallible. Even the most accurate from the throwing line, like Stephen Curry , who usually hits more than 90% of his free throws.
Throughout our lives, social pressures, which usually start from our elders, try to lead us to a path of success . They teach us from a young age to look up, to aim as high as we can, and this leads us to believe that no achievement below perfection is enough. Needless to say, feeling this is harmful and can put a person's entire emotional makeup at risk.
Achieving perfection is not possible, as we have no proof that such a state exists. We like to say that "nature is perfect", for example, to enhance the apparent equilibrium in which its species develop and the processes they carry out, but even within this framework we can find flaws, many of which lead to the so-called evolution . Being fallible, therefore, can sometimes open the door to good things.

The synonyms of the term fallible that we can find in the dictionary present us with a fairly broad picture, which includes the two meanings mentioned so far, as we can see below: equivocal, misleading , inaccurate, erroneous, uncertain, wrong and insecure . We can notice that some refer to "not telling or showing the truth", while others are related to the imperfection proper to the fallible.
On the other hand, among its antonyms we find the following three: true, unequivocal and infallible . It is interesting to note that in everyday speech it is not common to come across this word, but instead it usually appears imperfect or defective , among others that vary according to the region and the area in which it is spoken. However, its infallible antonym is widely used in popular language, despite containing it in its entirety and simply being distinguished from it by the prefix in- . This does not show how unpredictable the language is, perhaps because it is also fallible: for example, it cannot guarantee its effectiveness. of its rules in all cases, and that is why there are so many exceptions.