different between pain vs difficulty

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English peyne, payne, from Old French and Anglo-Norman peine, paine, from Latin poena (“punishment, pain”), from Ancient Greek ????? (poin?, “bloodmoney, weregild, fine, price paid, penalty”). Compare Danish pine, Norwegian Bokmål pine, German Pein, Dutch pijn, Afrikaans pyn. See also pine (the verb). Displaced native Old English s?r.

Alternative forms

• paine (obsolete)

Pronunciation

• enPR: p??n, IPA^(key): /pe?n/
• Rhymes: -e?n
• Homophone: pane

Noun

pain (countable and uncountable, plural pains)

1. (countable and uncountable) An ache or bodily suffering, or an instance of this; an unpleasant sensation, resulting from a derangement of functions, disease, or injury by violence; hurt.

   The greatest difficulty lies in treating patients with chronic pain.

   I had to stop running when I started getting pains in my feet.

2. (uncountable) The condition or fact of suffering or anguish especially mental, as opposed to pleasure; torment; distress

   In the final analysis, pain is a fact of life.

   The pain of departure was difficult to bear.

3. (countable, from pain in the neck) An annoying person or thing.

   Your mother is a right pain.

4. (uncountable, obsolete) Suffering inflicted as punishment or penalty.

   You may not leave this room on pain of death.
5. (chiefly in the plural) Labour; effort; great care or trouble taken in doing something.

Usage notes

• Adjectives often used with "pain": mild, moderate, severe, intense, excruciating, debilitating, acute, chronic, sharp, dull, burning, steady, throbbing, stabbing, spasmodic, etc.

Synonyms

• (an annoying person or thing): pest
• See also Thesaurus:pain

Antonyms

• pleasure

Hyponyms

• agony
• anguish
• pang
• neuropathic pain
• nociceptive pain
• phantom pain
• psychogenic pain

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Verb

pain (third-person singular simple present pains, present participle paining, simple past and past participle pained)

1. (transitive) To hurt; to put to bodily uneasiness or anguish; to afflict with uneasy sensations of any degree of intensity; to torment; to torture.

   The wound pained him.

2. (transitive) To render uneasy in mind; to disquiet; to distress; to grieve.

   It pains me to say that I must let you go.

3. (transitive, obsolete) To inflict suffering upon as a penalty; to punish.

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English payn (“a kind of pie with a soft crust”), from Old French pain (“bread”).

Noun

pain (plural pains)

1. (obsolete, cooking) Any of various breads stuffed with a filling.

   gammon pain; Spanish pain

References

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

Anagrams

• APNI, NIPA, PANI, nipa, pian, pina, piña

Bilbil

Etymology

From Proto-Oceanic *papine, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *babinahi, from Proto-Austronesian *bahi.

Noun

pain

1. woman

Further reading

• Malcolm Ross, Proto Oceanic and the Austronesian Languages of Western Melanesia, Pacific Linguistics, series C-98 (1988)

Finnish

Noun

pain

1. inflection of pai:
   1. genitive singular
   2. instructive plural

Anagrams

• apin, pani, pian

French

Etymology

From Old French pain, from Latin p?nis, p?nem, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *peh?- (“to feed, to graze”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p??/
• Homophones: pains, pin, pins, peint, peins, peints

Noun

pain m (plural pains)

1. bread
2. piece of bread
3. food
   • 1830 Juvénal, Les Satires, translated into French verse by Barré de Jallais

     Sa nudité déplaît, sa détresse importune, / Et tous les jours, hélas ! à tout le monde en vain / Il demande une chambre, un habit et du pain.

     His nudity embarrasses, his distress importunes, / And all the days, alas! to everyone in vain / He ask a bedroom, clothes and foods.

4. bread-and-butter needs, basic sustenance; breadwinner
   • 1830 Juvénal, Les Satires, translated into French verse by Barré de Jallais

     Ce danseur, déployant une jambe soigneuse / À tenir l’équilibre, et la corde douteuse, / Trouve dans son talent des habits et du pain, / Et son art lui subjugue et le froid et la faim : […]

5. (informal) punch (a hit with the fist)
   • 2006, Maurice Léger, Moi, Antoinette Védrines, thanatopractrice et pilier de rugby, Publibook

     J’étais redescendue dare-dare, bien décidée à lui mettre un pain dans la tronche.

     I was redescended quickly, really steadfast to blow him a punch on his face.

6. a block (of ice, of salt, of soap …) with the shape and size of bread
7. (slang) (music) mistake during a performance (false note, forgot an intro, wrong solo, …)

Derived terms

Related terms

• panier

Descendants

• Haitian Creole: pen
• Karipúna Creole French: djip?
• ? Farefare: pãan?

Further reading

• “pain” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• pina

Gedaged

Etymology

From Proto-Oceanic *papine, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *babinahi, from Proto-Austronesian *bahi.

Noun

pain

1. woman

Further reading

• Malcolm Ross, Proto Oceanic and the Austronesian Languages of Western Melanesia, Pacific Linguistics, series C-98 (1988)
• ABVD
• Gedaged Bible translation, Genesis 1:27: Tamol pain mai inaulak.

Matukar

Etymology

From Proto-Oceanic *papine, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *babinahi, from Proto-Austronesian *bahi.

Noun

pain

1. woman

Further reading

• Malcolm Ross, Proto Oceanic and the Austronesian Languages of Western Melanesia, Pacific Linguistics, series C-98 (1988)

Norman

Alternative forms

• pôin (Guernsey)

Etymology

From Old French pain.

Pronunciation

Noun

pain m (plural pains)

1. (Jersey) bread

Derived terms

• gângne-pain (“breadwinner”)
• pain d'êpice (“gingerbread”)
• p'tit pain (“roll”)

Old French

Etymology

From Latin p?nis, p?nem.

Noun

pain m (oblique plural painz, nominative singular painz, nominative plural pain)

1. bread

Descendants

• French: pain
  • Haitian Creole: pen
  • Karipúna Creole French: djip?
  • ? Farefare: pãan?
• Norman: pain, pôin
• Walloon: pwin, pan
• ? Middle English: payn, pain, paine, pein
  • English: pain (obsolete)

Ronji

Etymology

From Proto-Oceanic *papine, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *babinahi, from Proto-Austronesian *bahi.

Noun

pain

1. woman

Further reading

• Malcolm Ross, Proto Oceanic and the Austronesian Languages of Western Melanesia, Pacific Linguistics, series C-98 (1988)

Tagalog

Noun

pain

1. bait (for catching fish, rats, etc.)
2. decoy
3. nest egg

Wab

Etymology

From Proto-Oceanic *papine, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *babinahi, from Proto-Austronesian *bahi.

Noun

pain

1. woman

Further reading

• Malcolm Ross, Proto Oceanic and the Austronesian Languages of Western Melanesia, Pacific Linguistics, series C-98 (1988)

English

Etymology

From Middle English difficultee, from Old French difficulté, from Latin difficultas, from difficul, older form of difficilis (“hard to do, difficult”), from dis- + facilis (“easy”); see difficile and difficult. Equivalent to dis- +? facile +? -ty. Also analysable as difficult +? -y, though the adjective is historically a backformation from the noun.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?d?f?k?lti/

Noun

difficulty (countable and uncountable, plural difficulties)

1. The state of being difficult, or hard to do.
2. An obstacle that hinders achievement of a goal.
3. (sometimes in the plural) Physical danger from the environment, especially with risk of drowning
   • 2012 August 2, "Children rescued after getting into difficulties in Donegal" BBC Online
   • 2016 March 30, Alan Thompson, "Diver taken to hospital after getting into difficulties at Stoney Cove diving centre" Leicester Mercury
   • 2016 February 24, Catherine Shanahan, "Boy, 13, drowns after getting into difficulty in river" Irish Examiner

     The three teenagers, a girl and two boys, were playing by the river when it is believed they got into difficulty.

   • 2016 March 14, "Kayaker rescued after getting into difficulty" Bournemouth Echo

     Members of the public had called 999 as they were concerned the kayaker was in difficulty around the headland race due to very strong spring tides and choppy seas with the kayaker making no headway.

   • 2016 March 19, Neil Shaw "Teens rescued from Dartmoor after getting into difficulty" Plymouth Herald

     A group of young people had to be rescued from Dartmoor on Friday night after getting into difficulty during a Duke of Edinburgh exercise. […] A 16-year-old girl required medical attention and a medic was winched down to the site by helicopter.

4. An objection.
5. That which cannot be easily understood or believed.
6. An awkward situation or quarrel.

Derived terms

• difficulty level
• with difficulty

Related terms

• difficile
• difficult

Translations

Further reading

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