complication

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English complicacioun,^[2] borrowed from Late Latin complicātiō (“a folding together”),^[3][4][5][6] a noun of action from complicō (“to fold together, fold up, roll up”).^[7][8][9] The OED calls the source simply Latin and compares French complication, recorded in French in the 16th century;^[8] the Shorter Oxford allows a borrowing from either French or Late Latin.^[10] The Latin verb is formed from com- (“with, together”) and plicō (“to fold, weave”),^[7][9] from Proto-Indo-European *plek- (“to plait”).^[7][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Involvement or combination, in a Middle English surgical text of about 1425, which distinguishes a simple condition from one in which two or more conditions are combined.^[2] Etymonline gives the early 15th century and the sense "complex combination or intricate intermingling",^[7] and the Shorter Oxford dates the word to late Middle English.^[10] The OED's first record is from Cotgrave's dictionary of 1611, in the sense "the action of folding together".^[8][4]

Semantic evolution

The literal Latin sense, a folding together, was used in English from 1611 to 1691, and "intimate combination" from 1655 to 1699; both are obsolete.^[8][4] Johnson (1755) defined it as the act of involving one thing in another and the state of being so involved.^[11] With a plural, a complication was a complicated state of affairs from 1647, a use also found in medicine;^[8] Etymonline dates the medical sense, an additional disorder that develops during an existing one, to the 1690s, and derives from it the general sense of whatever makes a situation more involved or intricate.^[7] The sense "complicated condition or nature" is recorded from 1793,^[8] a use in psychology for the combining of impressions from different senses from 1886,^[8] and "a complicating factor" from 1903, in Shaw's Man and Superman.^[8] Etymonline quotes the Century Dictionary's distinction: complication implies an entanglement that causes difficulty, complexity a multitude of parts whose relations are hard to see.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 1425 – involvement, combination, in a surgical text.^[2]
• 1611 – the action of folding together (obsolete).^[8][4]
• 1647 – a complicated state of affairs; also in medicine.^[8]
• 1655 – intimate combination (obsolete).^[8]
• 1690s – a secondary disorder developing during an existing one.^[7]
• 1793 – complicated condition, structure or nature.^[8]
• 1886 – in psychology, the association of impressions from different senses.^[8]
• 1903 – a complicating factor, in Shaw.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A circumstance or factor that makes something more difficult or complicated: A late change of venue was one more complication.^[12][13][14]
2. (medicine) A secondary disease or condition that arises during an existing illness and usually makes it worse.^[13][14][12]
3. A complex or confused state; an intricate relationship of parts.^[13][12][4]
4. The act or process of complicating.^[13][12][4]
5. (psychology) The combining of sense data from different senses into a single impression.^[4][8]
6. (obsolete, 1611–1691) A folding together.^[8][4]
7. (obsolete, 1655–1699) An intimate combining of things.^[8][4]

Word family

• complicative

Related words

• complicate
• complex
• implicate
• explicate
• ply
• plait

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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)
3. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
14. ^ a b Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press