difficile
English
Etymology
From late Old French difficile, from Latin difficilis, from dis- + facilis (“easy”).
Adjective
difficile (comparative more difficile, superlative most difficile)
- (obsolete) Hard to work with; stubborn.
- (obsolete) Difficult.
- 1603, Michel de Montaigne, translated by John Florio, The Essayes […], London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:, Folio Society, 2006, vol.1, p.185:
- […] forasmuch as he was to judge of an internall beauty, of a difficile knowledge, and abstruse discovery.
Translations
hard to work with, stubborn
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French
Etymology
Inherited from Old French difficile, from Latin difficilis.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /di.fi.sil/
audio (file)
Antonyms
Derived terms
Further reading
- “difficile”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Italian
Etymology
From Latin difficilis.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /difˈfi.t͡ʃi.le/
Audio (file) - Rhymes: -itʃile
- Hyphenation: dif‧fì‧ci‧le
Noun
difficile m or f by sense (plural difficili)
- person who is intractable or hard to please
- 2012, John Green, translated by Giorgia Grilli, Colpa delle Stelle [The Fault in our Stars], Mondadori, page 36:
- Mi divertivo a fare la difficile.
- I enjoyed being coy.
- (literally, “I enjoyed being a hard-to-please person.”)
Noun
difficile m (plural difficili)
Related terms
Latin
Etymology 1
From difficilis (“difficult, troublesome”) + -ē.
Pronunciation
- (Classical) IPA(key): /difˈfi.ki.leː/, [d̪ɪfˈfɪkɪɫ̪eː]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /difˈfi.t͡ʃi.le/, [d̪ifˈfiːt͡ʃile]
Synonyms
- (with difficulty): difficiliter, difficulter
Etymology 2
Inflected form of difficilis (“difficult, troublesome”).
Pronunciation
- (Classical) IPA(key): /difˈfi.ki.le/, [d̪ɪfˈfɪkɪɫ̪ɛ]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /difˈfi.t͡ʃi.le/, [d̪ifˈfiːt͡ʃile]
References
- “difficile”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- difficile in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
Middle French
Norman
Etymology
From Old French difficile, from Latin difficilis.
Derived terms
- difficilement (“difficultly, with difficulty”)
Old French
Alternative forms
- difficil (masculine oblique singular)
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