Meaning

adjective not easy; requiring great physical or mental effort to accomplish or comprehend or endure

adjective hard to control; ,

originFrom Middle English difficult (ca. 1400), a back-formation from difficulte (whence modern difficulty), from Old French difficulté, from Latin difficultas, from difficul, older form of difficilis (“hard to do, difficult”), from dis- + facilis (“easy”); see difficile. Replaced native Middle English earveþ (“difficult, hard”), from Old English earfoþe (“difficult, laborious, full of hardship”),…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0