sufficient

Pronunciation

• IPA: /səˈfɪʃ.ənt/^[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English sufficient, borrowed from Old French soficient (“satisfactory”) or directly borrowed from Latin sufficiēns (“adequate”) (accusative sufficientem),^[2][3][4] the present participle of sufficere (“to supply as a substitute; to suffice”) (see suffice),^[2][5] from sub “up to” and a combining form of facere “to make, do”,^[2] from the PIE root Proto-Indo-European *dhe- (“to set, put”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Adequate for a purpose, enough: about 1380 in the OED, the early 14th century in Etymonline.^[6][2] The NODE notes an early sense, legally satisfactory.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It has had special legal and technical senses since Middle English.^[2] Able to provide for a need, as in sufficient unto the day, from Matthew 6:34, is from 1535 in that construction.^[6] Competent or qualified, of a person, is an older sense now rare.^[7][3] In logic a sufficient condition is one that ensures the truth of a statement, as opposed to a necessary one.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1380 – adequate, enough.^[6]
• 1535 – able to provide for.^[6]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. As much as is needed; enough: sufficient evidence.
2. (archaic) Competent or qualified.
3. (logic) Of a condition, ensuring that something is true.

Word family

• sufficiently
• oversufficient
• supersufficient
• self-sufficient
• sufficiency
• sufficient condition

Related words

• suffice
• insufficient
• efficient
• fact

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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
8. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins