'Sufficient' is Latin for 'making up from below' — building up to meet the required level.
Enough to meet a need or purpose; adequate in quantity or quality.
From Latin 'sufficiēns' (being enough, adequate, competent), present participle of 'sufficere' (to put under, to substitute, to supply in place of, to be adequate, to suffice), composed of 'sub-' (under, up from below, in place of) + 'facere' (to do, to make, to cause), from PIE *dheh₁- (to put, to set, to place — the root of 'do,' 'deed,' 'fact,' and 'theme'). The PIE root *dheh₁- is foundational: it produced Latin 'facere' (do, make), Sanskrit 'dadhāti' (places, sets), Greek 'tithenai' (to place, set) — giving 'theme,' 'thesis,' 'synthesis,' and 'hypothesis' — and through Germanic *dōn, it gave English 'do.' The image embedded in 'sufficient' is spatial and quantitative: sub-facere means
In French, 'suffisant' developed a secondary meaning of 'smug, self-satisfied' — a person who considers themselves 'sufficient,' needing no improvement. This pejorative sense does not exist in English 'sufficient' but reveals an interesting cultural judgment: self-sufficiency, when directed inward as self-satisfaction, becomes a character flaw.
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