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 (General American):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛkʃən
• Hyphenation: com‧plex‧ion

Noun

complexion (plural complexions)

1. 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, [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], “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.

2. (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.

3. Outlook, attitude, or point of view.
   • 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] 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.

   • 1982 February 13, Wayne Dynes, “Unnatural”, in Gay Community News, volume 9, number 29, page 4:

     The feminist complexion of NOLAG was shown in the Spring Conference in Los Angeles when the organization went so far as to reject a moderately worded resolution in favor of sexual freedom. At the same time it endorsed a double standard by affirming that women's bars have the right to discriminate by excluding men, but no men's bar should have the corresponding option.

4. (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, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] 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. […]

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

Derived terms

• complexionary
• complexionless
• discomplexion

Related terms

• complect
• complex
• complexional

Translations

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: Hokkien: 頭面 / 头面 (zh-min-nan) (thâu-bīn) Mandarin: 臉色 / 脸色 (zh) (liǎnsè), 面色 (zh) (miànsè) Czech: pleť (cs) f, pokožka (cs) f, barva pleti f Dutch: teint (nl) m, huidskleur (nl) f Faroese: dámur m Finnish: ihonväri (fi), hipiä (fi) French: teint (fr) f, complexion (fr) f Galician: cute (gl) f German: Teint (de) m, Gesichtsfarbe (de) f Greek: χρώμα (el) n (chróma) Ancient: χρώς m (khrṓs) Hungarian: arcszín (hu) Indonesian: warna kulit muka Irish: snamh m Italian: carnagione (it) f Japanese: 顔色 (ja) (かおいろ, kaoiro) Korean: 안색(顔色) (ko) (ansaek) Luxembourgish: Teint m Malay: warna kulit Mongolian: єнгє зїс (öngö züs) Navajo: akágí ánóolingi Norwegian: Bokmål: hudfarge m Nynorsk: hudfarge m or f Occitan: tench m, tint m Polish: cera (pl) f, karnacja (pl) f, płeć (pl) f (archaic) Portuguese: tez (pt) f Romanian: trăsătură (ro) 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

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.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “complexion”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

French

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin complexiōnem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɔ̃.plɛk.sjɔ̃/

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

Noun

complexion f (plural complexions)

1. complexion

   Synonyms: tempérament, constitution

Further reading

• “complexion”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.