dificil

Forms

dificil m or n (feminine singular dificilă, masculine plural dificili, feminine/neuter plural dificile)^[1]

Etymology

It is a neologism, borrowed from French difficile, with a second model in Latin difficilis: DELR, DEX and MDN name both, and MDA2, Tiktin and the DLR add Italian difficile.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} DN and Scriban put the Latin word first.^[8][9] The Latin adjective is formed with the negative prefix dis- on facilis (“easy”), from faciō (“to do, make”).^[2][10] French borrowed it from Latin in 1330.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is from 1846, in Laurian, with the sense “hard, complicated”;^[12] Tiktin gives the same year.^[2][6] Negulici's dictionary of neologisms of 1848 spells it with a double ⟨ff⟩, after the Latin, and explains it as “hard to do”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The sense “hard to do or to understand” came first;^[13][9] Heliade wrote that the hardest hendecasyllables are the unrhymed ones.^[7][5] CADE in 1931 and Scriban in 1939 already record the sense said of people, “hard to please, fussy”.^[13][9]

The noun dificultate came earlier, in 1800, from New Latin difficultas and French difficulté; a Transylvanian form dificultaș shows the Hungarian pronunciation of Latin.^[2] Dificultos “difficult” (1870) and dificulta “to make difficulties” (1881, Eminescu) are rare.^[2]

Timeline

• 1846 – dificil “hard, complicated” in Laurian, the first record.^[2][6]
• 1848 – in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms, spelled with ⟨ff⟩.^[12]
• 1870 – dificilŭ and the adjective dificultos in Costinescu's dictionary.^[14][2]
• 1881 – the verb dificulta in Eminescu.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. difficult, hard to do, laborious; complicated, hard to solve or understand: o problemă dificilă.^[3][5]
2. Of people and their character: hard to get along with or to please; fussy, capricious, touchy: un copil dificil.^[3][8]

Related words

• dificulta
• dificultate
• facil
• Latin difficilis

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. dificil
3. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 313
4. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. dificil
5. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 711
6. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. dificil
7. ^ a b Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. dificil
8. ^ a b Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. dificil
9. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 425
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
12. ^ a b c Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București, p. s.v. dificil
13. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. dificil
14. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 1, 338