facilmente

Forms

facilmente (superlative facilissimamente)^[2] Old forms include Old Italian facilemente and Old Italian facilmentre.^[3]

Etymology

It is formed from Italian facile + -mente, like other adverbs of manner.^[1][4][3][2]

Tommaseo notes that the classical language used Latin facile, the neuter of the adjective, as the adverb, that Vitruvius has faciliter, a form Quintilian disapproved of, and that early Latin had faculter.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in Bono Giamboni's translation of Orosius, written before 1292 in Florentine, in the sense “without effort, without trouble”.^[3] GRADIT dates the word to before 1294, and Devoto–Oli to the end of the 13th century.^[4][6]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already used the adverb in the senses “certainly”, “willingly, readily” and “with a chance of being carried out”.^[3] Guittone d'Arezzo writes in a letter that some “facilmente si mostrano acconsenzienti all'opera” (“readily show themselves willing to do the deed”).^[2][5] The GDLI lists a wide range of shades, from “speedily, comfortably” to “without resistance”, and notes that the word is sometimes used in litotes.^[7]

Modern Italian has kept the main sense “easily” and, in colloquial use, “probably”, where the adverb comments on the whole sentence.^[4][8]

Timeline

• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses facilmente in his translation of Orosius.^[3]
• Before 1294 – Date of first record in GRADIT.^[4]

Meanings

Adverb

1. easily, without difficulty: Questa ricetta si prepara facilmente.^[4][6][8]
2. (colloquial) probably, very likely: Facilmente domani farà freddo.^[4][6][8]

Related words

• facile
• facilità
• facilitare
• Latin facilis

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
3. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
4. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
7. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 5, 566
8. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana