difficulté

Forms

difficulté f (countable and uncountable, plural difficultés)^[1] Anglo-Norman difficultee and difficultie.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin difficultās (“difficulty, obstacle, embarrassment”), from difficilis (“difficult”).^[3][4][5][6] The Latin noun also meant “a difficult temper”;^[6][5] French took over only the senses “obstacle” and “embarrassment”.^[6][5]

Compare Old Occitan difficultat and Spanish dificultad.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record (1239) is in a charter of Saint-Loup quoted by Godefroy's Complément, in the sense “opposition, objection”: “sanz difficulté et sanz contredit” (without objection and without contradiction).^[3] The DHLF notes that this idea of opposition survives in se rendre sans difficulté “to surrender without resistance”.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The sense “the quality of being difficult” appears in Alain Chartier's Quadrilogue invectif (1422), and that of “an obstacle that makes a thing difficult” in Cotgrave (1611).^[3] The construction la difficulté de for what is difficult in a thing is also dated 1611, and the countable une difficulté, des difficultés names a difficult or problematic point.^[6] Commynes has faisoit difficulté de leur rendre “was reluctant to give back to them”, an old use of the sense “objection”.^[7]

The noun produced difficultueux (1584), formed on the model of volupté and voluptueux.^[6] Littré also records it for a hard passage in a text or in a piece of music.^[7]

Timeline

• 1239 – First record, “objection”.^[3][6]
• 2nd quarter of the 13th century – Anglo-Norman records with the senses “difficulty, complexity, obstruction”.^[2]
• 1422 – Alain Chartier uses it for “the quality of being difficult”.^[3]
• 1584 – The derivative difficultueux appears.^[6]
• 1611 – Cotgrave records it for “obstacle”.^[3]
• 1690 – Furetière records a further sense.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The quality of being difficult; what makes a thing hard to do or understand: la difficulté de cet examen.^[8][7][3]
2. Trouble or effort in doing something: Il monte l'escalier avec difficulté.^[8][7]
3. A difficult point, an obstacle or problem: Les difficultés se multiplient.^[8][3][7]
4. An objection, opposition: Je n'y vois point de difficulté.^[7][6]
5. A hard passage in a text or a piece of music.^[7]

Word family

• difficultueux

Related words

• difficile
• difficilement
• Latin difficultās

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
4. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert