complicate

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin complicātus (“folded together; confused, intricate”), the past participle of complicō (“to fold together”),^[2][3][4][5] formed from com- (“together”) and plicō (“to fold”),^[6][7][2] from Proto-Indo-European *plek- (“to plait”).^[2][6] The participle was used as an adjective first, in Middle English complicate (“involved”),^[8][3] and Barnhart suggests that the verb arose from it.^[3] The OED takes the verb from the participial stem of the Latin verb.^[7] It is related to ply, plicate and complex.^[5][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

As an adjective, "involved", before 1425, in a translation of Guy de Chauliac's Grande Chirurgie.^[8][3] The verb, "to unite or combine intimately", is first recorded in 1621, in Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy;^[7][3] Etymonline gives "to intertwine" in the 1620s.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The verb kept the literal sense of folding or twisting together in the 17th century, as in Donne (before 1631), but that sense was obsolete by the 1690s.^[7] The sense "to combine in an involved way" followed in 1673.^[7] The usual modern sense, "to make complex or difficult", is recorded only from 1832,^[7][10] and with it the medical use for one disease worsening another.^[4][1] The adjective complicate, "complex, intricate", is now archaic or poetic,^[7] and has been replaced by the participle complicated; it survives in botany and entomology for a leaf or wing folded lengthwise.^[7][6][11]

Timeline

• before 1425 – adjective, involved.^[8][3]
• 1621 – verb, to intertwine or combine intimately.^[7][3]
• 1638 – adjective, compound, complex.^[7][4]
• 1673 – to combine in an involved way.^[7]
• 1832 – to make complex or difficult.^[7]
• 1866 – adjective, in botany, folded lengthwise.^[7]
• 1873 – intransitive, to become complicated.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make something more complex or difficult: Bad weather complicated the rescue.^[4][6][11]
2. To make a disease or condition more severe: pneumonia complicated by a bacterial infection.^[4][1]
3. To become complex.^[6][7]
4. (obsolete) To fold or twist together; to intertwine.^[4][7]

Adjective

1. (archaic) Complex, intricate.^[4][7][11]
2. In botany and entomology, folded lengthwise, as some leaves or insects' wings; conduplicate.^[6][4][7]

Word family

• overcomplicate
• recomplicate
• uncomplicate

Related words

• complication
• explicate
• implicate
• complicated
• ply
• complex
• plicate

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins