Etymologically
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compliant

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 31 October 2026 at 14:56. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • UK: /kəmˈplʌɪənt/[1]
  • US: /kəmˈplaɪənt/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English comply + -ant,[2][3][4][5][6] probably on the model of pliant,[7] or of words such as defiant.[2] Ayto calls it an English development.[8] The verb comply came into use about 1600 from Italian complire, from Spanish cumplir, in which "to fill up, complete" had come to mean "to satisfy the forms of courtesy".[2][8][9] Both go back to Latin compleō (“to fill up, finish”), the source of complete, complement, compliment and accomplish.[8][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Disposed to comply, ready to yield to the wishes of others: 1642, in a letter of Lord Digby quoted in Clarendon's History of the Rebellion.[2][9] Etymonline dates it to the 1640s.[3]

Semantic evolution

In the 17th century compliant could also be used of physical things, meaning pliant or yielding to pressure: Milton's Paradise Lost (1667) speaks of "the compliant boughs".[2][10] This sense was obsolete by the end of the 18th century.[2][4] Johnson (1755) gave both senses, defining the social one as civil or complaisant.[10][2] A noun compliant, one who complies, was used briefly from 1655.[2][4] Modern use has added the sense of meeting rules or standards, as in compliant with safety regulations,[11][9][12] and in medicine that of a patient who follows a prescribed treatment.[12]

Timeline

  • 1642 – disposed to comply, yielding to others' wishes.[2][9]
  • 1655 – noun, one who complies (obsolete by 1661).[2]
  • 1667 – of things, yielding to pressure, pliant (obsolete by 1793).[2][10]
  • 1755 – Johnson defines it as yielding, bending, and civil, complaisant.[10]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Willing to comply with the wishes of others or to obey rules, sometimes too readily; submissive: a compliant workforce.[12][9][11]
  2. Meeting the requirements of a rule, law or standard: The new boilers are compliant with emission limits.[9][12][11]
  3. (medicine) Of a patient: following a prescribed course of treatment.[12]
  4. (obsolete, 1667–1793) Yielding to physical pressure; pliant.[2][9][4]

Noun

  1. (obsolete, 1655–1661) A person who complies.[2][4]

Word family

  • compliantly
  • compliancy
  • incompliant
  • uncompliant

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  9. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  10. ^ a b c d Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  11. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  12. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt