complexion

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)

1. (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:

     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, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A Millar, , →OCLC:

     “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. […]

2. 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 Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     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], “Asking for an Invitation”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. , volume III, London: Henry Colburn, , →OCLC, 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, 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:

     “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:

     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, page 171:

     Nurse Cramer had a cute nose and a radiant, blooming complexion dotted with fetching sprays of adorable freckles that Yossarian detested.

3. (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.

4. Outlook, attitude, or point of view.
   • 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. , volume I, London: Benj Motte, , →OCLC, part I (A Voyage to Lilliput):

     That minister was galbet, or admiral of the realm, very much in his master’s confidence, and a person well versed in affairs, but of a morose and sour complexion.

   • 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.

5. (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.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:countenance

Related terms

• complect
• complex
• complexional

Translations

Verb

complexion (third-person singular simple present complexions, present participle complexioning, simple past and past participle complexioned)

1. (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.

Further reading

• “complexion”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “complexion”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

French

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin complexiōnem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɔ̃.plɛk.sjɔ̃/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

complexion f (plural complexions)

1. complexion

   Synonyms: tempérament, constitution

Further reading

• “complexion”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

Old French

Etymology

First known attestation circa 1120, a learned borrowing from Latin complexiō.

Noun

complexion oblique singular, f (oblique plural complexions, nominative singular complexion, nominative plural complexions)

1. (medicine) complexion (combination of humours making up one's physiological "temperament")

References

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (complession, supplement)