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"faculty (university school)" in seven languages

Meaningfaculty (university school)

Spanish

facultad

/fakulˈtad/

fem.learned

French

faculté

/fakylte/

fem.learned

Shortened to la fac in student speech.

Italian

facoltà

/fakolˈta/

fem.learned

Portuguese

faculdade

/fakuwˈdadʒi/

fem.learned

In Brazil also simply 'college': fazer faculdade 'to go to university'.

Romanian

facultate

/fakulˈtate/

fem.learned

Catalan

facultat

/fəkulˈtat/

fem.learned

English

faculty

/ˈfækəlti/

from Latin/French · Old French faculté

In American English it is also the teaching staff; the sisters say profesorado, corps enseignant, corpo docente.

English → Italianfaculty (university school)facoltàCognateSame source — inherited, learned or borrowed. You can recognize it.What English and Italian share

The Latin ancestor

FACULTĀTEM‘ability, power (from FACILIS 'easy to do')’

All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.

The story

FACULTĀS was 'the ability to do'; medieval universities used it for a branch of learning. The sisters still use it for both senses: las facultades mentales, la facultad de Medicina.

English relatives: facility, faculties, facile

Sound laws at work

-TĀTEM: -dad, -té, -tà

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In a sentence

  • esEstudia en la Facultad de Derecho.
  • frElle étudie à la faculté de droit.
  • itStudia alla facoltà di Giurisprudenza.
  • ptEla estuda na Faculdade de Direito.
  • roStudiază la Facultatea de Drept.
  • caEstudia a la Facultat de Dret.
  • enShe studies at the Faculty of Law.

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