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complex

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: adjective UK /ˈkɒm.pleks/, US /kɑːmˈpleks/; noun UK /ˈkɒm.pleks/, US /ˈkɑːm.pleks/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French complexe (“complicated, intricate”),[2][3][4] or directly from Latin complexus (“surrounding, encompassing”),[2][5] the past participle of complectī (“to encircle, embrace; to comprehend”),[2][3] from com- (“together”) and plectere (“to weave, braid, twine”),[2][3][5] from Proto-Indo-European *plek- (“to plait”).[2] The noun is partly from Latin complexus “a surrounding, embrace”, and partly the adjective used as a noun.[3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

“Made of various connected parts”: before 1652, both as adjective and noun,[3][7] the 1650s in Etymonline.[2] Merriam-Webster dates the adjective to 1645 and the noun to 1643.[5]

Semantic evolution

The sense “involved, intricate, complicated” is first recorded in 1715.[3][7] A complex sentence, with one or more subordinate clauses, is from 1776 in Etymonline,[2] 1881 in the OED,[7] and a complex fraction from 1827.[7] In chemistry, a substance formed by combining simpler ones is from 1895.[7] The psychological sense, a group of repressed, emotionally charged ideas, was established by C. G. Jung in 1907,[2][7] which gave the popular sense of an obsession or fixation, as in inferiority complex.[8] A group of buildings with a common purpose, such as a sports complex, is a later use.[8][9] Complexity is from before 1721.[3]

Timeline

  • before 1652 – made of various parts; a composite whole.[3][7]
  • 1715 – complicated, intricate.[3][7]
  • 1776 – complex sentence.[2]
  • 1895 – a chemical complex.[7]
  • 1907 – a psychological complex.[2][7]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Made up of many connected parts; composite.
  2. Hard to understand or deal with; complicated or intricate.
  3. (grammar) Of a sentence, having a main clause and one or more subordinate clauses.
  4. (mathematics) Of a number, having a real and an imaginary part.

Noun

  1. A whole made of connected parts; a group of related buildings: a sports complex.
  2. (psychology) A group of repressed ideas and feelings that influence behavior.
  3. An exaggerated fear or obsession: a complex about his height.

Word family

  • complexly
  • complexness
  • complexation
  • complexify
  • complexity
  • supercomplex
  • multiplex
  • overcomplex

Usage notes

Complex suggests many related parts, complicated parts so many or so related as to be hard to understand, and intricate a pattern of elaborately intertwined parts;[8] knotty and tangled imply difficulty in solving.[8]

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  9. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster