difficile
English
Etymology
From late Old French difficile, from Latin difficilis, from dis- + facilis (“easy”).
Pronunciation
Adjective
difficile (comparative more difficile, superlative most difficile) (obsolete)
- Hard to work with; stubborn.
- 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.
Derived terms
Translations
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French
Etymology
Inherited from Old French difficile, from Latin difficilis.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /di.fi.sil/
Audio (France): (file) - IPA(key): [d͡zifɪsɪl], [d͡zɪfɪsɪl], [d͡zɪfsɪl] (Quebec)
- Hyphenation: dif‧fi‧cile
Adjective
difficile (plural difficiles)
- difficult
- Synonym: ardu
- Antonym: facile
- Near-synonym: compliqué
- la critique est aisée mais l’art est difficile ― criticism comes easy, but art is difficult
- choosy, fussy, picky
- être difficile ― to be difficult
- faire le difficile ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)
Derived terms
Further reading
- “difficile”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Interlingua
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /difˈfi.tsi.le/
Adjective
difficile (comparative plus difficile, superlative le plus difficile)
Antonyms
Italian
Etymology
From Latin difficilis.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /difˈfi.t͡ʃi.le/[1]
Audio: (file) - Rhymes: -itʃile
- Hyphenation: dif‧fì‧ci‧le
Adjective
difficile m or f (plural difficili, superlative difficilissimo)
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
References
- ^ difficile in Luciano Canepari, Dizionario di Pronuncia Italiana (DiPI)
Latin
Etymology 1
From difficilis (“difficult, troublesome”) + -ē.
Pronunciation
- (Classical Latin) IPA(key): [dɪfˈfɪ.kɪ.ɫeː]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): [d̪ifˈfiː.t͡ʃi.le]
Adverb
difficilē (comparative difficilius, superlative difficilissimē)
- with difficulty
Synonyms
- (with difficulty): difficiliter, difficulter
Antonyms
Related terms
Etymology 2
Inflected form of difficilis (“difficult, troublesome”).
Pronunciation
- (Classical Latin) IPA(key): [dɪfˈfɪ.kɪ.ɫɛ]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): [d̪ifˈfiː.t͡ʃi.le]
Adjective
difficile
- nominative/accusative/vocative neuter singular of difficilis
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
Adjective
difficile m or f (plural difficiles)
Norman
Etymology
From Old French difficile, from Latin difficilis.
Adjective
difficile m or f
Derived terms
- difficilement (“difficultly, with difficulty”)
Old French
Alternative forms
- difficil (masculine oblique singular)
Adjective
difficile m (oblique and nominative feminine singular difficile)