language evolution - When and how did "fail" become a noun?


Does anyone know when and how fail became a noun? I'd love to see one of those charts that shows the date of origin and subsequent growth of this usage.



Answer



"Fail" has existed as a noun and has been part of our lexicon for a long time, such as in the phrase "without fail." However, it gained a new meaning in the recent years with the fail Internet meme, where it started as an interjection first, capable of standing on alone in a sentence.


In fact, the first entry for "fail" to arrive on Urban Dictionary described fail as "an interjection used when one disapproves of something, or a verb" and one of the two examples cited was:



You actually bought that? FAIL.



If the "FAIL" above was a noun, that sentence would not be syntactically correct. Nouns cannot be used in that manner. It would be like saying:



You positioned your lips to form an upward curve? SMILE.



We understand what is meant but it's not syntactically correct. No one with a good command of English would ever say such a sentence. A correct way to articulate the thought while keeping "smile" as a noun would be to say:



You positioned your lips to form an upward curve? That's a smile.



Therefore, the fail in the Urban Dictionary example is an interjection.


It's only afterward, probably through misinterpretation of the meme, that it came to be used as a noun. When you look at an image with only "FAIL" written on it, it's impossible to tell whether fail is being used as a noun or an interjection:


alt text


From that point on, the meme evolved - as memes often do - and started to be used as a noun, as an adjective, and as a noun modified by as an adjective.


As for the origin of the meme itself, which I assume is your original question, the origin most often given (by Know Your Meme, Slate, and the New York Times) is that it comes from a poor Japanese-to-English translation of the game Blazing Star.


Ben Zimmer of the New York Time says:



This punchy stand-alone fail most likely originated as a shortened form of “You fail” or, more fully, “You fail it,” the taunting “game over” message in the late-’90s Japanese video game Blazing Star, notorious for its fractured English.



For reference, here's Blazing Star's game over message:


alt text


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