complexion
See also: complexión and complex ion
English
Alternative forms
- complection (obsolete)
Etymology
From Middle English complexion (“temperament”), from Old French complexion (French complexion), from Medieval Latin complexiō (“complexion, constitution”), from complector, past participle complexus (“to entwine, encompass”).
Pronunciation
- (General American) IPA(key): /kəmˈplɛkʃən/
Audio (GA) (file) - Rhymes: -ɛkʃən
- Hyphenation: com‧plex‧ion
Noun
complexion (plural complexions)
- (obsolete, medicine) The combination of humours making up one's physiological "temperament", being either hot or cold, and moist or dry.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938:
- Ne ever is he wont on ought to feed / But todes and frogs, his pasture poysonous, / Which in his cold complexion doe breed / A filthy blood […]
- 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], OCLC 928184292:
- “Indeed, sir,” answered the lady, with some warmth, “I cannot think there is anything easier than to cheat an old woman with a profession of love, when her complexion is amorous; and, though she is my aunt, I must say there never was a more liquorish one than her ladyship. […]
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- The quality, colour, or appearance of the skin on the face.
- a rugged complexion
- a sunburnt complexion
- c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene i]:
- Prince of Morocco: Mislike me not for my complexion, / The shadow’d livery of the burnish’d sun, / To whom I am a neighbour, and near bred. […]
- 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], OCLC 21345056, page 28:
- "I shall do nothing for the next week but study my costume and complexion," said she. "Ethel and myself will consider our conquests as proper compliments to your kindness."
- 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], OCLC 1042815524, part I, page 193:
- The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much.
- 1903 December 26, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist”, in The Return of Sherlock Holmes, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co., published February 1905, OCLC 2093987:
- “Yes, Mr. Holmes, I teach music.”
“In the country, I presume, from your complexion.”
“Yes, sir, near Farnham, on the borders of Surrey.”
- 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 639762314:
- This new-comer was a man who in any company would have seemed striking. In complexion fair, and with blue or gray eyes, he was tall as any Viking, as broad in the shoulder.
- 1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Soldier in White”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, OCLC 1023879857, page 171:
- Nurse Cramer had a cute nose and a radiant, blooming complexion dotted with fetching sprays of adorable freckles that Yossarian detested.
- (figuratively) The outward appearance of something.
- 1910, Bernard Capes, Why Did He Do It? (page 207)
- It was a little unfortunate that the fib unfibbed gave their consultations something the complexion of that close understanding which exists between penitent and confessor.
- 1910, Bernard Capes, Why Did He Do It? (page 207)
- Outlook, attitude, or point of view.
- 1844, E. A. Poe, Marginalia
- But the purely marginal jottings, done with no eye to the Memorandum Book, have a distinct complexion, and not only a distinct purpose, but none at all; this it is which imparts to them a value.
- 1844, E. A. Poe, Marginalia
- (loanword, especially in scientific works translated from German) An arrangement.
- 1909, Ludwig Boltzmann, translated by Kim Sharp and Franz Matschinsky
- Second there is the level at which the energy or velocity components of each molecule are specified. He calls this a Komplexion, which we translate literally as complexion.
- 1909, Ludwig Boltzmann, translated by Kim Sharp and Franz Matschinsky
Synonyms
- See also Thesaurus:countenance
Related terms
- complect
- complex
- complexional
Translations
appearance of the skin on the face
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Verb
complexion (third-person singular simple present complexions, present participle complexioning, simple past and past participle complexioned)
- (transitive) To give a colour to.
- 2003, Leland Krauth, Mark Twain & Company: Six Literary Relations (page 118)
- From the pale refinement of her genteel heroine to the sallow complexioning of poor white trash, Stowe colors her narrative with the hues of the body.
- 2003, Leland Krauth, Mark Twain & Company: Six Literary Relations (page 118)
Further reading
- complexion in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
- complexion in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911
French
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Latin complexiō.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /kɔ̃.plɛk.sjɔ̃/
Audio (file)
Noun
complexion f (plural complexions)
- complexion
- Synonyms: tempérament, constitution
Further reading
- “complexion”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Old French
Etymology
First known attestation circa 1120[1], borrowed from Latin complexiō.
Noun
complexion f (oblique plural complexions, nominative singular complexion, nominative plural complexions)
- (medicine) complexion (combination of humours making up one's physiological "temperament")
References
- Etymology and history of “complexion”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
- Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IXe au XVe siècle (1881) (complession, supplement)