Etymologically
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sufficient

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 16 October 2026 at 04:32. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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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

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