Other forms: foibles
A foible is a small odd habit that does nobody any harm. Human foibles, his little foibles, tolerate her foibles.
It is affectionate where a fault would be a complaint, and it is usually plural. In fencing the foible is the weak upper half of the blade, which is the original sense.
1nounfoibleA small odd habit that does no harm.
“Everyone in the office knew his foible for exact stationery.”
foible is a habit.
Early Modern French foible meant feeble; the word is a doublet of feeble, and named the weak part of a sword blade first.
French
foible — feeble
English, today
foible
1640–50, from Early Modern French foible (“feeble”) (contemporary French faible). a doublet of feeble.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA