complexio

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [kɔmˈpɫɛk.si.oː]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [komˈplɛk.si.o]^[1]

Forms

complexiō f (genitive complexiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin complector (“to embrace”) + -tiō.^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Rhetorica ad Herennium uses it of a summary that briefly concludes an argument, and of the coalescing of letters.^[2] Köbler dates the work 86/82 BC.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It meant encircling, and a combination or group, as Cicero's combinations and couplings of atoms.^[2][4] In rhetoric and logic it was a summary, a dilemma in which either answer is refuted (“if he is wicked, why employ him; if good, why accuse him?”), and the fusion of vowels or syllables, synaeresis.^[2] The TLL notes that it is found in prose writers such as the Rhetorica ad Herennium, Cicero, Seneca and Quintilian and often in later authors.^[5]

In Late Latin, from Firmicus Maternus, it meant the physical constitution of the body.^[6] Medieval Latin used it for temperament and the combination of humours, and also for an embrace and a collection.^[7][8] English complexion is recorded from the mid-14th century, first of temperament.^[9]

Timeline

• 86/82 BC – The Rhetorica ad Herennium uses it as a rhetorical term.^[2][3]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of combinations of atoms and of the dilemma.^[2][3]
• 343/350 AD – Firmicus Maternus uses it of bodily constitution.^[6][3]
• mid-14th century – English complexion is recorded.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. Encircling, embracing.^[2][1]
2. A combination, connection, group.^[2][1]
3. (rhetoric) A summary; a dilemma; synaeresis.^[2][1]
4. (Late Latin) Physical constitution, temperament.^[6][7]

Related words

• complexitās
• complector
• English complexion

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com