facile

The story

1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*dʰeh₁-“to do, put”
2. Latin · derived fromfacere“to do, make”
3. Latin · derived fromfacilis“easy to do, easy, doable”
4. Middle French · borrowed fromfacile
5. English todayfacile

Borrowed from Middle French facile, from Latin facilis (“easy to do, easy, doable”), from Latin facere (“to do, make”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to do, put”) Compare Spanish and Portuguese fácil (“easy”), Catalan fàcil, Romanian facil. First use appears c. 1484 in a translation by William Caxton.

Words from the same roots

First known use, by meaning

• from 15th c. Easy; contemptibly easy.
• from 16th c. Amiable, flexible, easy to get along with.
• from 17th c. Effortless, fluent (of work, abilities etc.).
• from 19th c. Lazy, simplistic, superficial (especially of explanations, discussions etc.).