sufficiency

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin sufficientia,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from sufficiēns (“adequate”), the present participle of sufficiō (“to supply, suffice”),^[3][5][7] which is formed from sub- (“up to”) and faciō (“to make, do”).^[3] Etymonline traces the Latin verb further to Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to set, put”).^[3] The OED compares Spanish suficiencia, and refers to the older English noun sufficience,^[2] which Etymonline records from the late 14th century in the sense "capability, ability".^[3] Johnson derived the English word from French suffisance.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Sufficient means or wealth, the ability to meet one's financial obligations: 1495, in an Act of Henry VII.^[2] Etymonline also dates this first sense to the late 15th century,^[3] and Dictionary.com dates the word to 1485–95.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The first sense, means or wealth enough to meet one's obligations, was obsolete by the mid-18th century.^[2][4] In the 1530s the word came to mean a sufficient number or quantity, simply "enough", and by the 1560s the general state of being adequate for a purpose.^[3][2] From 1567 it was also used of a person's capacity or qualification for a task, a sense the OED now calls obsolete or archaic,^[2] and which Johnson (1755) still gave as "qualification for any purpose".^[8] The sense "a sufficient supply, a competence" followed in the early 17th century,^[2][3] and Johnson quoted Thomson's phrase "an elegant sufficiency, content" for this modest comfort.^[8] From the 1630s the word could also mean self-sufficiency, independence of character, a use now archaic.^[2][10][3]

Timeline

• 1495 – sufficient means or wealth; the ability to meet financial obligations (obsolete by 1747).^[2]
• 1531 – a sufficient number or quantity; enough, in Tyndale.^[2][3]
• 1565 – the quality of being sufficient for a purpose; adequacy.^[2][3]
• 1567 – adequate capacity or qualification for a task; ability.^[2]
• 1608 – a sufficient supply; a competence.^[2][4]
• 1638 – self-sufficiency, independence of character (now archaic).^[2]
• 1796 – adequate provision of food or bodily comfort.^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The quality or condition of being sufficient; adequacy: The inspectors doubted the sufficiency of the safety checks.^{[11][5][2][12]}
2. An adequate amount or quantity; enough: a sufficiency of firewood for the winter.^{[11][5][10][12]}
3. Enough means to live in modest comfort; a competence.^[5][12][13]
4. (archaic) Ability or qualification for a task; competency.^[2][5][11]
5. (archaic) Self-sufficiency; independence of character.^[10][2]

Word family

• insufficiency
• self-sufficiency

Related words

• suffice
• sufficient
• sufficience

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ a b c Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
13. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster