complacent

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin complacēns (“very pleasing”), the present participle of complaceō (“to be very pleasing, to please greatly”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} formed from the intensive prefix com- and placeō (“to please”),^[7][8][9] the source of please.^[3][8] The American Heritage Dictionary traces the Latin verb to Proto-Indo-European *plāk-.^[7] According to Ayto, complaisant is a virtual doublet: it comes from the same Latin verb through French complaisant, the present participle of complaire (“to gratify”), whereas complacent was taken directly from Latin.^[10][3] Klein compares placate and placet.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pleasing, pleasant, delightful: 1660, in R. Burney,^[2][3] a sense that the OED calls rare and that died out in the late 18th century.^[2][6] Etymonline dates it to the 1650s, and Dictionary.com to 1650–60.^[4][11]

Semantic evolution

The sense "pleased with oneself, self-satisfied" appears in 1767, in R. Jago's Edge-hill;^[2][3][4] Merriam-Webster dates its main sense to 1760.^[5] Ayto notes that the word did not take on its present unfavourable tone until the mid 18th century, and that this tone was at first carried by the now obsolete complacential.^[10] A third sense, "disposed to please, obliging", is recorded from 1790, in Burke,^[2][4] and overlapped with complaisant: Barnhart notes that from the 1600s until at least the 1850s complaisant and complaisance shared with complacent and complacence the sense of being obliging and gracious.^[3] Johnson (1755) defined the word only as "civil; affable; soft; complaisant".^[12] Modern dictionaries stress that the satisfaction is often uncritical or unwarranted.^[5][6]

Timeline

• 1660 – pleasing, pleasant (obsolete by 1772).^[2][3]
• 1767 – pleased with oneself, self-satisfied.^[2][3][4] Merriam-Webster dates this sense to 1760.^[5]
• 1790 – obliging, eager to please; complaisant.^[2][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Pleased with oneself or one's situation, often without good reason, so that one overlooks dangers or the need to do better; smug: After three easy victories the players became complacent.^{[13][5][14][6]}
2. Unconcerned.^[15]
3. (archaic) Eager to please; complaisant.^{[13][15][6][14]}
4. (obsolete, 1660–1772) Pleasing, pleasant.^[2][6]

Word family

• complacently
• overcomplacent
• uncomplacent
• self-complacent

Related words

• complacence
• complacency
• complaisant
• please
• placate
• placet

Usage notes

Complacent and complaisant come from the same Latin verb by different routes,^[10] and for two centuries both could mean "obliging, gracious";^[3] today the second sense of complacent is archaic.^[6]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
14. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster