different between competency vs faculty

English

Etymology

From French compétence.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?k?mp?t?nsi/

Noun

competency (countable and uncountable, plural competencies)

1. (obsolete) A sufficient supply (of).
   • 1612, John Smith, Proceedings of the English Colonie in Virginia, in Kupperman 1988, p. 178:

     the next day they returned unsuspected, leaving their confederates to follow, and in the interim, to convay them a competencie of all things they could […]

   • 1892, Ambrose Bierce, Tales of Soldiers and Civilians - A Holy Terror

     […] it would appear that before taking this precaution Mr. Bree must have had the thrift to remove a modest competency of the gold […]

2. (obsolete) A sustainable income.
   • 1915, W.S. Maugham, Of Human Bondage, chapter 116:

     He had heard people speak contemptuously of money: he wondered if they had ever tried to do without it. He knew that the lack made a man petty, mean, grasping; it distorted his character and caused him to view the world from a vulgar angle; when you had to consider every penny, money became of grotesque importance: you needed a competency to rate it at its proper value.

3. The ability to perform some task; competence.
   • 1796, Edmund Burke, Letters on a Regicide Peace

     The loan demonstrates, in regard to instrumental resources, the competency of this kingdom to the assertion of the common cause.
4. (law) Meeting specified qualifications to perform.
5. (linguistics) Implicit knowledge of a language’s structure.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:skill

Translations

English

Etymology

From Middle English faculte (“power, property”), from Old French faculte, from Latin facultas (“capability, ability, skill, abundance, plenty, stock, goods, property; in Medieval Latin also a body of teachers”), another form of facilitas (“easiness, facility, etc.”), from facul, another form of facilis (“easy, facile”); see facile.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?fæ.k?l.ti/

Noun

faculty (plural faculties)

1. (chiefly US) The academic staff at schools, colleges, universities or not-for-profit research institutes, as opposed to the students or support staff.
2. A division of a university.

3. Often in the plural: an ability, power, or skill.
4. An authority, power, or privilege conferred by a higher authority.
5. (Church of England) A licence to make alterations to a church.
6. The members of a profession.

Usage notes

In the sense of academic staff at a university, academic staff, teaching staff or simply staff are preferred in British English.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:faculty

Related terms

• facultative

Translations

Further reading

• faculty in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• faculty in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.