complexion

See also complexión

English

Alternative forms

• complection (obsolete)

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA: /kəmˈplɛkʃən/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛkʃən

Etymology

From Middle English complexion (“temperament”), from Old French complexion, French complexion, from Latin complexio (“a combination, connection, period”), from complecti, past participle complexus (“to entwine, encompass”)

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, The Faerie Queene, III.10:

     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 […].

2. The quality, colour, or appearance of the skin on the face.
3. (figuratively) The outward appearance of something.
4. 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.

Synonyms

• See also Wikisaurus:countenance

Related terms

• complect
• complex
• complexional

Translations

appearance of the skin on the face

• Albanian: pamje e lëkurës (sq) m
• Arabic: بشرة (ar) (bášra) f
• Basque: tankera (eu)
• Bulgarian: тен (bg) (ten) m 
• Cebuano: pamanit
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 臉色 (cmn), 脸色 (cmn) (liǎnsè), 面色 (cmn) (miànsè)

  Min Nan: 頭面 (nan) (thâu-bīn)

• Czech: pleť (cs) f, pokožka (cs) f, barva pleti (cs) f
• Dutch: kleur (nl), huidskleur (nl), tint (nl)
• French: teint (fr) m, complexion (fr) f
• German: Teint (de) m, Gesichtsfarbe (de) f
• Greek: χρώμα (el) (chróma) n 
• Hungarian: arcszín (hu)
• Indonesian: warna kulit muka (id)

• Japanese: 顔色 (ja) (かおいろ, kaoiro)
• Korean: 안색 (ko) (ansaek) (顔色 (ko))
• Luxembourgish: Teint (lb) m
• Malay: warna kulit (ms)
• Mongolian: єнгє зїс (mn) (enge zïs) 
• Polish: cera (pl) f
• Portuguese: tez (pt) f
• Romanian: trăsătura (ro) f, ten (ro) f
• Russian: цвет лица (ru) (cvet licá) m 
• Spanish: tez (es) f
• Swedish: hy (sv) c
• Tagalog: kulay ng balat (tl), kutis (tl)
• Vietnamese: nước da (vi)
• Yao: ceejewu
• Zulu: bala (zu)

External links

• complexion in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• complexion in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911