Etymologically
Log in

facility

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 21:58. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /fəˈsɪl.ə.ti/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French facilité (“easiness, ease”),[2][3][4] or directly from Latin facilitatem (“easiness, fluency, willingness”),[2][3] from facilis (“easy to do”),[2][5] from facere “to do”, from Proto-Indo-European *dhe- (“to set, put”).[2] It is related to facile, facilitate and faculty.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

“Gentleness, lightness”, now obsolete: the early 15th century, first in a medical book translating Guy de Chauliac.[2][6][5]

Semantic evolution

Its sense widened to “opportunity” in the 1510s,[2] 1519 in the OED,[7] and to “ease, the quality of being easily done” in the 1530s,[2] 1531 in the OED and Merriam-Webster.[7][4] Aptitude or dexterity is from 1532,[7] affability and courtesy from 1550,[7] and readiness to be led or persuaded, pliancy, from 1533.[7] Facilities, favourable opportunities, is from 1809, after French.[7] Something that makes an action easier, and then a place for doing something, is from the mid-19th century,[5] by 1872 in Etymonline.[2]

Timeline

  • early 15th century – gentleness.[2]
  • 1519 – opportunity.[7]
  • 1531 – ease.[7][4]
  • 1532 – aptitude.[7]
  • 1533 – pliancy.[7]
  • 1809 – facilities.[7]
  • 1872 – a place for doing something.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A building, place or piece of equipment provided for a particular purpose: sports facilities.
  2. Something that makes an action or process easier.
  3. Ease or skill in doing something; aptitude.
  4. Readiness to be persuaded; pliability.
  5. An arrangement made by a bank to lend money: an overdraft facility.

Word family

  • correctional facility
  • facilitate
  • facile
  • faculty
  • difficulty

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c d Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press