difficultas

Latin

Etymology

From difficilis (“difficult, troublesome”) +‎ -tās (with u before l pinguis, i.e. [ɫ]).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [dɪf.fɪˈkʊɫ.taːs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [d̪if.fiˈkul̪.t̪as]

Noun

difficultās f (genitive difficultātis); third declension

1. difficulty, distress, trouble, hardship

   Synonyms: īnfortūnium, mōlēs, cūra

Declension

Third-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	difficultās	difficultātēs
genitive	difficultātis	difficultātum
dative	difficultātī	difficultātibus
accusative	difficultātem	difficultātēs
ablative	difficultāte	difficultātibus
vocative	difficultās	difficultātēs

Related terms

• difficilē
• difficilis
• difficiliter
• difficulter

Descendants

• Catalan: dificultat
• English: difficulty
  • English: difficult
• Old French: difficulté
  • → English: difficulty
  • Middle French: difficulté
    • French: difficulté
      • → Romanian: dificultate
• Galician: dificultade
• Italian: difficoltà
• Occitan: dificultat
• Piedmontese: dificoltà
• Portuguese: dificuldade
• Spanish: dificultad

References

• “difficultas”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “difficultas”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “difficultas”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to be in a dilemma; in difficulties: in angustiis, difficultatibus, esse or versari
    
  • to be in a dilemma; in difficulties: angustiis premi, difficultatibus affici
    
  • to be in severe pecuniary straits: in summa difficultate nummaria versari (Verr. 2. 28. 69)
    
  • want of corn; scarcity in the corn-market: difficultas annonae (Imp. Pomp. 15. 44)