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Can I use the adjective 'facile' in the form of 'facile with _____'?

English Language & Usage Asked on August 30, 2021

The only definitions I come across for ‘facile’ are in its adjective form. ‘Facile’, followed by the noun being described.

Is it grammatically or colloquially acceptable to use the word in the manner of: "the girl is facile with data"?

One Answer

Thesaurus.com has a treatment better than that in many dictionaries (but amended below):

facile [adjective] [often interchangeable with easy]

Something that is easy is by definition not hard or difficult. When an activity or goal can be carried out or achieved with little difficulty or effort, it may be called facile.

  • A facile victory, for instance, is a victory won handily with minimal exertion.

  • Similarly, someone who is facile with words expresses themself with ease.

While these senses of facile at least connote skillfulness, facile sometimes sports an air of superficiality:

  • facile answers are overly simplistic or trite responses to difficult questions;

  • facile assumptions are things taken for granted that really shouldn't be; and

  • facile arguments are shallow lines of reasoning—all things formed or arrived at a little too easily.

Collocations: a facile win, a facile victory

  • The team sailed to a facile victory.

On the surface, this would seem to license 'She is facile with N' where N is a suitable noun, and 'data' looks like a good candidate for N. However, these Google 3grams indicate that 'facile with data' is very much less idiomatic than 'facile with words' (and even 'facile with computers'). enter image description here

I'd use 'well at home with handling data'.

Correct answer by Edwin Ashworth on August 30, 2021

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