Etymologically
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complexio

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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]

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