Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Juregen]

I was just reading the Economist and was surprised at the person using the word: "Facile" to imply easy.

And indeed the Internet tells me that this word is considered English vocabulary.


Freaky.

I thought it was some "Eurospeak".

[mehmeh]

[yingwenlaoshi]

It's French. Its origins are, anyway.

C'est vraiment facile de poigner une lumiere rouge mais c'est pas vraiment facile d'evader la police.

[kermo]

"Facile" also has a negative connotation. I looked it up in a few online dictionaries to confirm, and here's what I found:

1. Done or achieved with little effort or difficulty; easy. See synonyms at easy.
2. Working, acting, or speaking with effortless ease and fluency.
3. Arrived at without due care, effort, or examination; superficial: proposed a facile solution to a complex problem.
4. Readily manifested, together with an aura of insincerity and lack of depth: a facile slogan devised by politicians.

[Pyongshin Sangja]

My students exhibit a facile understanding of English.

[MarionG]

Hillary Clinton often has facile responses to questions.

[yingwenlaoshi]

What a stupid word to use in English.

[topas]

Here is what the folks at Merriam-Webster have to say: http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/facile. According to them it's been used in English for about 500 years. (I normally hear it used to mean shallow, though, and not easy.)

[Dome Vans]

[SuperHero]

some people have facility with a language and others don't.

[normalcyispasse]

[Wangja]

Not only is facile English but often le mot juste.

[bacasper]

Facile is an Italian word as well as a perfectly good English word.

[yingwenlaoshi]

[Wangja]