faculty

/ˈfa-kəl-tē/

Middle English faculte "power, ability, field of knowledge, branch of learning at a university," borrowed from Anglo-French faculté, borrowed from Medieval Latin facultāt-, facultās (Latin, "power, ability, opportunity, quantity available"), from Latin *faklis, earlier form of facilis "easy, accommodating" + -tāt-, -tās -ty

noun

  1. ability, power: such as

  2. innate or acquired ability to act or do

  3. an inherent capability, power, or function

man … how infinite in faculty

gift faculty aptitude bent talent genius knack mean a special ability for doing something. gift often implies special favor by God or nature. faculty applies to an innate or less often acquired ability for a particular accomplishment or function.

adjective

  1. involving faculty from two or more departments or disciplines

an interfaculty picnic

noun

  1. a subdivision of a faculty

… the various faculties and subfaculties into which the university was, and is, divided: the faculties of letters, social sciences, law, mathematics and natural sciences, medicine, and so forth; and the subfaculties within these faculties, such as political science and sociology in the social sciences, and the subfaculty of history in the faculty of letters.