suffisance

French

Etymology

From Middle French, derived from suffisant in the 14th century.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sy.fi.zɑ̃s/
• Rhymes: -ɑ̃s

Noun

suffisance f (plural suffisances)

1. sufficiency (quality or condition of being sufficient)
2. self-importance, vanity
   • 1950, Aimé Césaire, Discours sur le colonialisme [Discourse on Colonialism]:

     Entre colonisateur et colonisé, il n’y a de place que pour la corvée, l’intimidation, la pression, la police, l’impôt, le vol, le viol, les cultures obligatoires, le mépris, la méfiance, la morgue, la suffisance, la muflerie, des élites décérébrées, des masses avilies.

     Between the colonizer and the colonized, there is place only for the corvee, intimidation, pressuring, police, tax, robbery, rape, obligatory cultivation, contempt, distrust, the morgue, arrogance, boorishness, decerebrated elites, the degraded masses.

Further reading

• “suffisance”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.