the verb "suffice" entered english in the 14th century from the old french "souffis-", stem of "soufire", which itself descended from the latin "sufficere". this latin compound is formed from "sub-" (meaning 'under', and here taking the sense of 'up to') and "facere" (meaning 'to make, do'). the literal sense is 'to put under, to supply, to be adequate'. the core logic of the word, from its latin roots to its modern english usage, is the idea of something being made or done to a level that meets a requirement, thus transitioning from the physical act of 'putting under' or 'supplying' to the abstract state of being 'enough'. it shares its ultimate root, "facere", with a vast family of english words like "fact", "factory", and "sufficient".

the word is a simplex unit derived from a latin verb. it is not productively formed from separable english morphemes.