Ethe

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. An archaic adjective meaning easy, requiring little effort or difficulty to accomplish
2. Old-fashioned word describing something that is simple to do or not hard to manage
3. Archaic term for that which is easy, free from difficulty or hardship in its doing

Etymology: Ethe is an old English word meaning easy or requiring little effort, and it has the rare distinction of being a native English word that traces back to Ancient Greek. The Greek noun "ēthos" meant character, disposition, or habitual custom, and its plural "ēthē" was contracted from older forms. The link to English runs through a shared Germanic and Indo-European ancestry of the word "eath" rather than through any direct borrowing from Greek, so the two words are not related by loan but by common descent of their roots. The surprising part is the sense shift. Greek "ēthos" gave modern English words like "ethic" and "ethos," which concern moral character and custom, while the English "eath" family drifted toward ease of doing something. Ethe survives mainly in older writing and dialect, where it still carries that original sense of something that comes naturally, a task that does not strain the one doing it.

Synonyms: easy, facile

Antonyms: hard, difficult