Etymograph

English

facile

Facile comes from Middle French facile ‘easy’, from Latin facere ‘to do, make’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- ‘to do, put’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dʰeh₁-1‘to do, put’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfacere1‘to do, make’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfacilis1‘easy to do, easy, doable’
  4. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600facile1‘easy’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1638facile1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English facile
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1638, Democritus Junior pseudonym; Robert Burt, The Anatomy of Melancholy. […]: “[…] as he that is benummed with cold, sits…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*dʰeh₁-Wiktionary, English facile‘to do, put’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfacereWiktionary, English facile‘to do, make’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfacilisWiktionary, English facile‘easy to do, easy, doable’
  4. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600facileWiktionary, English facile‘easy’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1638facileWiktionary, English facile. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1638, Democritus Junior pseudonym; Robert Burt, The Anatomy of Melancholy. […]: “[…] as he that is benummed with cold, sits…”

The story

First use appears c. 1484 in a translation by William Caxton.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- ‘to do, put’

do, deal, hot, defense, benefit, feature, mid, fact, fair, theme, fashion, fan, defence, custom, ethnic, treasury, treasure, sufficient, ethical, thesis, aesthetic, defendant, feast, synthetic, theology, doom, tick, deed, dis, atheist, ethic, auditorium, auditor, atheism, demi, deem, spade, thematic, ethos, forfeit, 128 more

through Latin facere ‘to do, make’

feasible

through Latin facilis ‘easy to do, easy, doable’

difficult, faculty, difficile, 4 more

Today it means

adj Easy; contemptibly easy.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “facile”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- / facile

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