difficile

Forms

difficile m or f by sense (plural difficili, superlative difficilissimo)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian dificile, Old Italian deficile (Bologna, 1328), Old Italian difficille (Verona) and Old Italian diffitille (Padua).^[2][3] In Sicily the old form is Sicilian difficili.^[3]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin difficilis (“difficult; hard to deal with, surly”), formed from facilis (“easy”) with the negative prefix dis-.^[4][5][6][1] The vowel /a/ of the base became /i/ in the compound, the normal change in an open medial syllable.^[7] The word is learned everywhere in Romance: Romansh difficil, French difficile (before 1380), Catalan difícil (13th century, Ramon Llull), Spanish difícil and Portuguese difícil.^[3][8] The LEI separates the two senses already found in Latin, “unbending, surly” and “arduous”.^[3] In southern Italy the form Neapolitan disficile has its prefix renewed.^[9] The rare old superlative difficillimo is taken from Latin difficillimus.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Pisan poet Panuccio del Bagno, in the second half of the 13th century, in the sense “requiring great effort or skill”.^[2][3] DELI dates the word to Domenico Cavalca, before 1342, and GRADIT to the 14th century.^[4][6]

Semantic evolution

The sense “surly, hard to get along with” is in Boccaccio's Ameto (1341–1342) and Cavalca, “arduous” in the Decameron (about 1370).^[2][3] Over the next centuries the word came to mean “hard to travel” (14th century), “hard to understand” (before 1498, Savonarola), “unlikely” (before 1609) and “full of worries and complications” (before 1540, Guicciardini).^[4] Leon Battista Alberti (1437–1448) uses it of a peevish person.^[4]

Of a person's taste it means “demanding, hard to please” from 1766 (Alessandro Verri); fare il difficile “to be fussy” is in a letter of Verdi of 1850, and farla difficile “to make something out to be harder than it is” is recorded from 1952.^[3] Francesco Algarotti, before 1764, used it for “sceptical”.^[3]

Timeline

• Second half of the 13th century – Panuccio del Bagno uses difficile.^[2]
• 1328 – Bolognese deficile is recorded in Jacopo della Lana.^[3]
• 1341–1342 – Boccaccio's Ameto uses it for a surly person.^[3]
• Before 1342 – Domenico Cavalca uses it for a task that needs effort.^[4]
• Before 1498 – Savonarola uses it for something hard to understand.^[4]
• Before 1609 – It is first recorded in the sense “unlikely”.^[4]
• 1766 – Alessandro Verri uses it for “hard to please”.^[3]
• 1850 – Fare il difficile is recorded in Verdi.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. difficult, hard: requiring effort, attention or skill: Il percorso è difficile da completare in un giorno.^[6][11][12]
2. Hard to understand, obscure, complicated: un saggio difficile.^[6][11][13]
3. Full of hardship or trouble, critical: Abbiamo passato mesi difficili.^[6][12][14]
4. Of a road or place, hard to travel, dangerous.^[6][13]
5. Of a person, hard to get along with, surly; demanding, fussy: un insegnante difficile.^[6][12][14]
6. Of a child or young person, troubled, needing special care or education.^[6][12]
7. unlikely: È difficile che piova stasera.^[6][14][15]

Noun

1. (il difficile) The difficult part, the problem: Il difficile è cominciare.^[6][14][15]
2. A person who is hard to please, fare il difficile, to be fussy.^[6][1]

Word family

• difficoltà
• difficoltoso
• difficilmente

Related words

• facile
• Latin difficilis
• French difficile

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 20, 371
4. ^ a b c d e f g Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 140
8. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
9. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1296
10. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 4, 390
11. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
13. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli