gracile

Etymology

This word was borrowed from Middle French gracil, gracile (“slender, thin”) (modern French gracile, “gracile”), or taken directly from its source Latin gracilis (“slender, slim, thin; lean, meagre, scanty; simple, unadorned”), which ultimately goes back to Proto-Indo-European *kerḱ- (“to become thin; to wane”). Its sense “graceful or gracefully slender” seems to have been shaped by the non-cognate word grace. It is cognate with Italian gracile (“delicate, frail; slender, thin”), Portuguese grácil, and Spanish grácil (“graceful; delicate; slender”), and is a doublet of gracilis.