- lapse
- 1526, "slip of the memory," from M.Fr. laps "lapse," from L. lapsus "a slipping and falling, flight (of time), falling into error," from labi "to slip, glide, fall." Meaning "a moral slip" is from 1582; that of "a falling away from one's faith" is from 1660. Legal sense of "termination of a right or privilege" first recorded 1570. The verb is first attested 1641.