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mortgage: mortgage: [14] Mortgage means literally ‘dead pledge’. It comes from Old French mortgage, a compound formed from mort ‘dead’ and gage ‘pledge’ (source of English gage and closely related to English wage). The notion behind the word is supposedly that if the mortgagor fails to repay the loan, the property pledged as security is lost, or becomes ‘dead’, to him or her.
=> mortal, wage
dud (n.): c. 1825, "person in ragged clothing," from duds (q.v.). Sense extended by 1897 to "counterfeit thing," and 1908 to "useless, inefficient person or thing." This led naturally in World War I to "shell which fails to explode," and thence to "expensive failure."
fail-safe (adj.): also failsafe, fail safe "safe against failure," 1945, originally in reference to aircraft construction, from fail (v.) + safe (adj.). The novel about a nuclear attack caused by mechanical error is from 1962.
mortgage (n.): late 14c., morgage, "conveyance of property as security for a loan or agreement," from Old French morgage (13c.), mort gaige, literally "dead pledge" (replaced in modern Frech by hypothèque), from mort "dead" (see mortal (adj.)) + gage "pledge" (see wage (n.)). So called because the deal dies either when the debt is paid or when payment fails. Old French mort is from Vulgar Latin *mortus "dead," from Latin mortuus, past participle of mori "to die" (see mortal (adj.)). The -t- restored in English based on Latin.
no-hitter (n.): baseball term for a baseball game in which one side fails to make a hit, 1939, from no + hit (n.).
no-show (n.): also no show, "someone who fails to keep an appointment," 1941, from no + show (v.), in the "show up, appear" sense. Originally airline jargon.