complexion

See also: complexión and complex ion

Contents

EnglishEdit

Alternative formsEdit

• complection (obsolete)

PronunciationEdit

• (US) IPA^(key): /kəmˈplɛkʃən/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛkʃən

EtymologyEdit

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

NounEdit

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.

   a rugged complexion;  a sunburnt complexion‎

   • 1915, Emerson Hough, The Purchase Price, chapterI:

     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.

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.

SynonymsEdit

• See also Wikisaurus:countenance

Related termsEdit

• complect
• complex
• complexional

TranslationsEdit

appearance of the skin on the face

• Albanian: pamje e lëkurës m
• Arabic: بَشْرَة f ‎(bašra)
• Basque: tankera
• Bulgarian: тен (bg) m ‎(ten)
• Cebuano: pamanit
• Chinese:

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

  Min Nan: 頭面 (zh-min-nan) ‎(thâu-bīn)

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

• Japanese: 顔色 (ja) ‎(かおいろ, kaoiro)
• Korean: 안색 (ko) ‎(ansaek) (顔色 (ko))
• Luxembourgish: Teint m
• Malay: warna kulit
• Mongolian: єнгє зїс ‎(єngє zїs)
• Navajo: akágí ánóolingi
• Polish: cera (pl) f, karnacja (pl) f
• Portuguese: tez (pt) f
• Romanian: trăsătura f, ten (ro) f
• Russian: цвет лица́ m ‎(cvet licá)
• Spanish: tez (es) f
• Swedish: hy (sv) c
• Tagalog: kulay ng balat, kutis
• Vietnamese: nước da (vi)
• Yao: ceejewu
• Zulu: bala

External linksEdit

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

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Old FrenchEdit

EtymologyEdit

First known attestation circa 1120, borrowing from Latin complexiō.

NounEdit

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

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

ReferencesEdit

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