Etymologically
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complicate

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈkɒmplɪkeɪt/, /ˈkɒmplɪkət/[1]
  • US: /ˈkɑmplɪkeɪt/[1]

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disease worsening another.[4][1] The adjective complicate, "complex, intricate", is now archaic or poetic,[7] and has been replaced by the participle complicated; it survives in botany and entomology for a leaf or wing folded lengthwise.[7][6][11]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

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