Where does “difficult” come from?
difficult (Middle English) comes from Middle English difficulte, from Middle French difficulté, from Old French difficulté, from Latin difficultas, from Latin difficilis, from Latin facilis, from Latin faciō, from Latin -torium.
Ancestry of “difficult”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Middle English | difficulte | — |
| 2 | Middle French | difficulté | difficulty |
| 3 | Old French | difficulté | difficulty |
| 4 | Latin | difficultas | difficulty, distress, trouble, hardship |
| 5 | Latin | difficilis | difficult, hard, troublesome; obstinate,... |
| 6 | Latin | facilis | that may or can be done or made; easy, facile |
| 7 | Latin | faciō | — |
| 8 | Latin | -torium | nominative neuter singular of -tōrius; accusative... |
| 9 | Latin | -tōrius | — |
| 10 | Latin | -tor | -er |
| 11 | Proto-Italic | -tōr | — |
| 12 | Proto-Indo-European | -tōr | Derives agent nouns from verbs, denoting someone... |
| 13 | Proto-Indo-European | -tor-s | — |
Words derived from “difficult”