complaceo

Forms

complaceō (present infinitive complacēre, perfect active complacuī or complacitus sum, supine complacitum); second conjugation, optionally semi-deponent, no imperative^[1] An older spelling is conplaceo.^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin con- + placeō (“to please”).^[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it in the Amphitruo, of whatever has once taken the fancy of a lover.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The perfect is either complacuī or the passive form complacitus sum.^[2][4] L&S notes that, apart from Columella, it is found only before and after the Classical period.^[4] In the strict sense it meant to please together with someone else, but mostly it was little more than placeō.^[3] Of a plan it meant to be approved or agreed.^[2]

In Christian Latin it meant to be acceptable to God,^[5][6] as in the Vulgate's in quo mihi complacui (“in whom I am well pleased”).^[6] The participle complacitus came to be used as an adjective, “pleased, favourable”.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of what takes a lover's fancy, and of a god's will.^[2][7]
• 190–159 BC – Terence has the perfect complacita est.^[4][3][7]
• 1st century AD – Columella uses it.^[4][7]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius uses it of a plan accepted by everyone.^[3][7]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it of what pleases God.^[3][4][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To take the fancy of, to win the affection of; to please (with dative).^[2][1]
2. Of a plan: to be approved, to be agreed on.^[2]
3. To please at the same time, to please as well.^[4][3]
4. (Ecclesiastical Latin) To be acceptable to;^[5][6] sibi complacere in, to be well pleased with.^[5][6]

Related words

• English complacent

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
6. ^ a b c d Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de