湖边社【每日一词】fallible - able or likely to make mistakes 会犯错误的；容易出错的
Definition:
1: liable to be erroneous
a fallible generalization
2: capable of making a mistake
we're all fallible
Did you know?
“Humanum est errare” is a Latin expression that translates as “To err is human.” Of course, cynics might say that it is also human to deceive. The history of the word fallible simultaneously recognizes both of these character flaws. In modern usage, fallible refers to one’s ability to make mistakes, but it descends from the Latin verb fallere, which means “to deceive.” Fallible has been used to describe the potential for error since at least the 15th century. Other descendants of fallere in English, all of which actually predate fallible, include fallacy (the earliest, now obsolete, meaning was “guile, trickery”), fault, false, and even fjail. Whoops, we mean fail.
Example Sentences
1 The process of scientific discovery is a complicated story involving data collection, hypothesis testing, hypothesis falsification, hypothesis revision, further testing and brilliant but fallible humans doing all that work. —David Quammen, New York Times, 25 July 2023
2 Many precautions have proved fallible: The Uvalde shooter entered a door that failed to automatically lock as designed, and other attackers have entered buildings by shooting out windows. —The Week Staff, The Week, 29 Jan. 2023
3 The board did summarily dismiss around 28,500 challenges, all from Schneider, because they were made using a fallible database-matching technique comparing Georgia voter rolls with the National Change of Address system, which a federal court had disallowed as systematic. —Doug Bock Clark, ProPublica, 13 July 2023