Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “difficile” come from?

Difficile comes from Old French difficile, from Latin difficilis meaning "hard to do," composed of the prefix dis- and facio meaning "to make," ultimately from Proto-Indo-European dʰeh₁-.

difficile (English): Hard to work with; stubborn; Difficult

Definitions

  1. Hard to work with; stubborn; Difficult

Ancestry of “difficile”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Old Frenchdifficiledifficult
2Latindifficilisdifficult, hard, troublesome; obstinate,...
3Latinfacilisthat may or can be done or made; easy, facile
4Latinfaciō—
5Latin-toriumnominative neuter singular of -tōrius; accusative...
6Latin-tōrius—
7Latin-tor-er
8Proto-Italic-tōr—
9Proto-Indo-European-tōrDerives agent nouns from verbs, denoting someone...
10Proto-Indo-European-tor-s—

Words derived from “difficile”

  • difficileness
Every word from Proto-Indo-European -tor-s →