Facile means too easy, and shallow because of it. A facile argument, facile comparisons, a facile solution.
It is always a criticism in English, though the French it came from simply means easy. Calling an explanation facile says it fits neatly and explains nothing.
1adjectivefacileToo easy, and shallow because of it.
“The report offers facile solutions to a very complex problem.”
facile is a quality.
Latin facilis means easy to do, from facere, to do.
Proto-Indo-European
*dʰeh₁-
Latin
facilis — easy to do, easy, doable
Middle French
facile
English, today
facile
Borrowed from Middle French facile, from Latin facilis (“easy to do, easy, doable”), from Latin faciō (“to do, make”), from Proto-Indo-European dʰeh₁- (“to do, put”) Compare Spanish - and Portuguese fácil (“easy”), Catalan fàcil, Romanian facil. First use appears c. 1484 in a translation by William Caxton.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA