Talk:facilitar

Etymology

@Stríðsdrengur (I got your message on my talk page after I started typing this discussion.) The etymology you give on the Portuguese section seems feasible to me, but I've consulted several Romance dictionaries and the only one that gives Latin facilitās + [verb ending] is the one you provided. I'd like to ask @Nicodene for input on the etymologies; they are more qualified than either of us to comment. Ultimateria (talk) 18:31, 17 March 2024 (UTC)

We can finally reach an agreement Stríðsdrengur (talk) 18:32, 17 March 2024 (UTC)

Etymologically it breaks down into Latin facilis (“easy”) + -itare (verb-forming suffix), just as debilitare and habilitare derive from debilis and habilis + -itare.

That said, the combination facilitare could have first occurred in one of the Romance languages. For instance faciliter is formable within French from facile on the model provided by débiliter, habiliter :: débile, habile.

So one should ask where the combination is first attested. The TLFi date the first occurrence of French faciliter to the fifteenth century, and the first occurrence of the Italian word to 1304. The Spanish facilitar appears in 1535 per Coromines & Pascual (G–Ma, p. 299) and the Catalan facilitar in 1575 per the DCVB. As for Medieval Latin the usual dictionaries do not mention facilitare.

From that brief overview, I'd say the the etymology on the Italian entry looks fine as-is, and the other Romance forms should point to it. Nicodene (talk) 20:11, 17 March 2024 (UTC)

@Nicodene: Thanks for the explanation. So then e.g. the Spanish would be fácil + -itar? I'm hesitant to consider that a suffix in these languages, which is why I initially left it at "From fácil." Ultimateria (talk) 20:13, 27 March 2024 (UTC)