The Frightful Power of Language!!

Deficient (adj.)

[Latin deficiens from deficientem, present participle of deficere, to desert, fail]

A present participle is a verb form denoting ongoing action. In Modern English, present participles characteristically end with –ing.

The Latin word “deficere” is formed from de meaning “down, away” and facere meaning “to do, perform.” Deficiency is evidenced in one’s actions, taken in view of the actions for which one is known capable. One who is deficient fails to perform in a way that, but for the deficiency, would otherwise be attainable.

Are you still with me, or are you intellectually deficient?

Now consider the word ‘factitious’ (adjective) -

• produced by man rather than by natural forces
• not produced by natural forces; “brokers created a factitious demand for stocks”
• Created by humans, artificial; Counterfeit, fabricated, not produced by natural forces.

A factitious situation or event is the result of a person’s intentional manipulations. For example, when the “[B]rokers created a factitious demand for the company’s stock,” the demand for the stock was driven not by the actual performance of the company, but by the representations and actions of stock brokers who were intentionally manipulating people’s demand for the stock.

The word factitious comes from the Latin ‘factitius’ which means “artificial.” Factitius comes from the present participle of the Latin word facere, “to do.” Consider the possibility that all human goings-on are factitious. Factitious’s root means ‘to do!’

Stay with this line of thought, the payoff is worth it. facere comes from the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) base *dhe- “to put, to do.” Do you see where this is going? Have you solved this little etymological mystery?

In Proto-Indo-European *dhe- meant “to put, to do,” while in Latin de- means “down, away” and ‘facere’ means “to do.” Put the two together and you arrive back at “deficient.” a word encoding how long ago Latin put down PIE languages, acting to keep them down today!