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