This Glossary of Failure is one of the results of the Research Project «Failure. Reversing the genealogies of unsuccess; 16th-19th CenturiesFunded by the European Union. Within the framework of a complex and interdisciplinary investigation such as this, born from the convergence of different fields of knowledge such as history, philology, art history, and philosophy, the aim of this volume is to address, in a predominantly conceptual way, the polysemy of the very notion of failure. However, a conceptual approach does not imply an abstract consideration of the logical characteristics of failure, independent of any context or specific use of the term. Let us not forget, in fact, that even Hegel had to rewrite his Science of logic based on the scientific discoveries and political events of their time. Therefore, all the entries in this glossary, while starting from an etymological approach, also address the literary, artistic, scientific, and—of course—philosophical manifestations and applications of each of the notions.

The glossary, available in full below, is supplemented with intertextual links between the different entries, which expand navigation possibilities, and videos of the congress namesake that hosted in November 2020 el Círculo de Bellas Artes.

Bankruptcy

Saúl Martínez Bermejo

Rarely does a term have such a clear etymology as that of "bankruptcy," for, as the Dictionary of Authorities published by the Royal Spanish Academy (1726-1739) pointed out, it is a "purely Italian word." All dictionaries, both general and specialized in commerce, agree in tracing this same origin. Among others, Bartolomé Clavero has noted that many of these commercial dictionaries also explained the literal origin of the expression: the breaking, as practical as it was symbolic, of the bank where business was conducted. Or in the Tractatus politico-juridicus de jure mercatorum et commerciorum singulariJohann Marquart (1662) notes that the term seems to derive from "broken table and bench." Bankruptcy is a term that must occupy a specific place in any analysis of failure, since it often refers to a type of failure that is feigned or perceived to be so. Bankruptcy can be a simulation of true bankruptcy, a fraud.

Drop

Iván de los Ríos

Drop, derived from the Spanish verb. FALL and from Latin. HIP, already attested in the 10th century, from which emerge DROP, But also HAPPENwhich in turn derives from Vulgar Latin ACCADERE and from Classical Latin ACCIDERE (ad-cadere). From an etymological perspective, another fundamental derivative for our purposes is the word EVENT and, above all, the lexical family of the term DECADENCE; DECAY, from vulgar Latin DECADERE, from which come "to decline", "decadence", "relapse", "decline", but also CADENCE, from Italian CADENZA, a word itself derived from the verb HIP which is at the base of our DROP.

Guilt

Nantu Arroyo

The term "culpa" (fault) originates from the Latin language and means "fault" or "imputation." In Roman law, there were different types of fault: a) fault by choice, b) fault by omission, c) fault in the performance of an obligation, and d) fault in supervision. Each of these "faults" or "imputations" required a proportionate punishment, linking this meaning to a legal responsibility. According to the Royal Spanish Academy, the word "culpa" is used in four senses: psychological, theological, moral y legalIn gathering them, it is essential to point out the close connection that exists between the concepts of guilt y debt.

Slope

Nantu Arroyo

The word slope It comes from Latin, specifically from the nominalization of the adjective decliniswhich literally means "that is on a slope" applied to a physical terrain that is inclined from top to bottom, or "that is in decline" (see decaySimilarly, it is used figuratively to describe anything or anyone that gradually loses strength, intensity, importance, or perfection. However, "to be in decline" is not usually said of individuals, but rather of groups, states, or societies that gradually lose the strength or values ​​that constitute them and weaken until they disintegrate.

Defeat

David Sánchez Usanos

In Spanish, the word "defeat" has two fundamentally distinct meanings. One refers to the path, course, route, or direction, primarily that followed by a vessel or ship. The other, which is of greater interest to us here, refers to the loss of a battle, to failure in a war, a confrontation, or a dispute. Thus, the verb "to defeat" is equivalent to conquering, destroying, or, in the context of bullfighting or navigation, making a change of direction (abrupt in the case of the bull, when it turns its horns from one side to the other).

Disaster

Pablo Castro García

We easily find in modern languages ​​compound terms that articulate the Latin prefix of negation, opposition or privation (dis-) and the Greco-Latin root referring to the stars (star/astron in Greek, astrum (in Latin). Despite the ease with which modern languages ​​articulate these compound forms from Greek and Latin, we do not find similar terms in these latter languages ​​in terms of their formation. We do not find anything similar to disaster, disaster, disaster, disaster o unsternModern terms that share their form and meaning: misfortune, calamity, setback, disaster (and the damages that result from such events).

Desengaño

Gabriel Aranzueque

Formed by the negative prefix from- and the noun deceptionThis word designates the dominant feeling that arises when a particular state of affairs contradicts the expectation, hope, or trust placed in something or someone. The prefixed particle of the– denotes negation, opposition, or deprivation of the meaning of the word to which the prefix is ​​applied (RAE, 2009, 716). This morphological process also expresses intentionality, as well as the partial or total loss of what is expressed in the lexical base, and connotes a negative critique of the word to which the prefix is ​​added.

Deuda

Nantu Arroyo

The term "debt" can be understood in several ways, including: 1) a moral obligation owed to someone, 2) a legal obligation, falling under the law of obligations, and 3) a payment obligation undertaken by someone who is bound to repay something, usually money, to another person; in this last sense, the debt is specifically economic. If we look closely, these three meanings of debt emphasize the obligation to repay it, which refers solely to the negative aspect of debt, focusing on one of the parties in the relationship that the debt represents: the debtor.

Error

Valerio Rocco Lozano

In Greek, two main verbs express the opposition between success and failure: tynchano/hamartano. To err, to fail, is understood at this level in opposition to the verb of success and good fortune. There are different semantic levels in this regard. Tynchano is, in Homer, the quintessential verb of encounters. Initially, and primarily within the IliadIts context of application is the battlefield. It is therefore part of the vocabulary of war and designates the contact between a weapon and the enemy's body, or their warrior attire, as a result of an attack or throw.

Exile

David Sánchez Usanos

Exile refers to an "outside," a separation or distance from a place to which one feels a sense of belonging: city, country, territory, community. It comes from Latin. exilium and it is usually associated with exile and, therefore, can be linked to ostracism (from the Greek ostrakismos, ὀστρακισμός), with the condemnation that entails exile for political reasons related to dishonor, to unvirtuous behavior. The precedent of exilium es exsilire ("jump out") and Greek phugé (φυγή), which means "flight," "escape" (also from a battle), and finally "exile." The term is almost identical in other related languages; see exile (English), exile (French), Esilio (Italian) or Exile (German).

Spot

Diego S. Garrocho Salcedo

Every stain entails the subversion of a continuity. A stain is always accidental, unforeseen, unexpected. A stain exerts a disruption, an intrusion or interruption on a predictable logic, on a surface, along a trajectory. A stain embodies an alteration, the inclusion of something other upon a reality that ideally aspires to be considered pure, and you already know the ancient relationship between impurity and sin, between the blemish and the transgression. The stain par excellence, as we all know, is always a bloodstain.

Monster

Julia Blanco Martínez

The name monster comes from Latin monsterThe term was given a marked religious meaning: it was used to denote a prodigy, a supernatural event, or a sign from the gods. Regarding monsters, they are so named because «monstrat futurum, monet voluntatem deorum"They reveal the future, they warn of the will of the gods. The name comes from the verb monere: to advise, to warn, which in turn comes from moneie- "to make one think of, to remind," the causative form of the root men-: to think. Demonstrare (to demonstrate) or admonish share the same root."

Shipwreck

Valerio Rocco Lozano

The term "shipwreck" comes from the Latin "naufragium," itself derived from the combination of the words "navis," ship (from its Greek derivative "naus"), and "frangere," "to break." This etymology indicates that a shipwreck is not so much the sinking of the ship, but its immediate (and prior) cause: the impact against an external element that breaks the vessel's structure. Therefore, in Latin, "shipwreck" always carries the sense of a certain external misfortune and is attributable to elements partly external to the subjective element (the crew).

Another Sunset

Julia Blanco Martínez

The term "sunset" is used symbolically to represent a scene or moment of thought that constitutes the final phase of existence, closely linked to the term "decay." However, there are two markedly different views of sunset as an end. First, there is the view of sunset as a terminal moment beyond which nothing will happen, nothing is expected; and second, there is a view of sunset as the moment that gives way to a new dawn, a cyclical interpretation of the object of study to which this metaphor is applied.

Oblivion

Eduardo Zazo

There is no doubt that forgetting is a form of failure. If we understand forgetting as the negation of memory, then forgetting is the result of the failure of the incessant activity of one of our most fascinating and least understood faculties: memory. If we understand forgetting as something different, perhaps something positive, then forgetting has a meaning, a purpose, or a direction, and we can investigate whether these are successful or unsuccessful.

Lost

Pablo Castro García

Words lose, lost y pérdida In modern languages ​​they trace back to the Latin word sorry, verbal form composed of the root of-, what does it mean give in the group of Indo-European languages” (Benveniste, 1983, p. 54), and by the prefix per-, which indicates, in the case at hand, deviation (Ernout and Meillet, 2001, p. 497). The root do-, from which we get Greek doron and Latin donum (The donation in both cases), is already interesting enough for historical analysis, as it refers to certain fundamental institutions of Western legal and economic life. Specifically, the verbal form we are analyzing (I forgive/I forgive) acquires in Latin the meaning of give or spend uselesslyAnd in an even more pronounced sense, lost means spoil, ruin o destroy (Ibid., p. 180).

Poverty

Saúl Martínez Bermejo

The etymological origins of the word "poverty" can be traced back to the Proto-Indo-European term peh-w (little, small). In ancient Greek, the term παῦρος It also meant little or small. The etymology of the Germanic term Arm (poor, from which it derives) PovertyThe meaning of "poverty" is largely unknown, but it may be related to terms concerning loneliness or isolation from the community. These two words are complemented in modern German by a multitude of terms to define those without means, in need, or unfortunate.besitzlos, mittellos, bedürftig, beklagenswert)..

Ruin

Diego S. Garrocho Salcedo

RuinTo be a ruin. To fall into ruin. To ruin or be ruined. To bring to ruin. These are just some of the most common ways we can recognize a term that, on many occasions, tends to be expressed in the plural to emphasize its meaning. Ruins are not the result of a mere accumulation—of one destruction after another—but rather, in their varied state, they usually signify a decline, collapse, or architectural decay. The singular is most often used to refer to a form of misfortune, because to be truly and completely ruined—even if, as the chorus leader in Oedipus Rex says, on the last day—can only be ruined over an entire lifetime.

Suicide

Eduardo Zazo

Approaches to suicide. Death is inevitable, yes, but there are many ways to die. One of them is suicide. The first question is essential: does suicide constitute a form of failure? On the one hand, suicide can be understood as the failure of a life voluntarily cut short, as the failure of a life worth living, as irrefutable proof that something has failed, or that society has failed. This is the global perception today. It is no coincidence that the World Health Organization (WHO) is the one overseeing this issue of "mental health."

Stumbling block

Iván de los Ríos

Escándalo, attested in the Spanish language at least since 1374 and derived from Latin scandalum, taken in turn from the Greek to skandalon, with the meaning of "trap or obstacle to cause one to fall" –in classical Greek– and occasion for sin –in New Testament Greek–. In classical Greek, ho skandalarios / hoi skandalarioi are the pebbles or planks of the roofs (the scandularius Latin). More interesting to us is the noun he scandalThis refers to the stick that is carefully placed in the center of an animal trap and on which bait is placed. When the bait is lifted from the stick, the trap closes and kills or captures the animal.