complicato Italian · revision 38731

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=1499, Hypnerotomachia Poliphili|origins=la plicō}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * /kom.pliˈka.to/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''complicato''' (feminine complicata, masculine plural complicati, feminine plural complicate, superlative complicatissimo)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is the past participle of [[complicare]], used as an adjective: [[af|it|complicare|-ato]].^(DELI 1999)^(Nocentini 2010)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Wiktionary) The verb is a learned word, [[bor|la|complicō|alt=complicāre|t=to fold together, roll up]], from [[m|la|com-|t=together]] and [[m|la|plicō|t=to fold]], the source of popular [[piegare]].^(DELI 1999)^(Nocentini 2010)^(GRADIT 2003)^(LEI|16, 536)

+

+ The LEI compares [[rm|cumplichà]], [[fr|compliqué]] (an illness affecting several parts of the body from about 1400, “intricate” from 1690), [[es|complicado]] and [[pt|complicado]], and takes the medical use in Italian as a Gallicism.^(LEI|16, 536) The adjective in the sense “difficult” is older than the verb in the sense “to make difficult”, which DELI dates only to 1865.^(DELI 1999)^(LEI|16, 536)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The LEI's first record is in the ''Hypnerotomachia Poliphili'' (1499), where ''complicato'' means “joined, interwoven”; a letter is ''complicata'', “folded, rolled up”, in Caviceo (1508), and Tasso (1588) uses the word for “implicated” in an affair.^(LEI|16, 536) DELI dates the sense “confused, difficult” to Leonardo, before 1519.^(DELI 1999)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ The LEI dates the modern sense “intricate, hard to understand” from Galileo (1638), who writes of a process that seems to him ''assai complicato'' (“very complicated”).^(LEI|16, 536)^(GDLI|3, 415) The literal “folded together” went out of use, and Tommaseo marks it as obsolete.^(Tommaseo–Bellini 1861) In medicine a ''malattia complicata'' is one that shows symptoms of another disease, and the noun ''complicatezza'' is recorded in the 19th century.^(Tommaseo–Bellini 1861)^(DEI|1038) In modern use ''complicato'' is also said of a person whose way of thinking and acting is hard to make out.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1499 – ''Complicato'' “interwoven” appears in the ''Hypnerotomachia Poliphili''.^(LEI|16, 536)

+ * 1508 – Caviceo uses it for a folded letter.^(LEI|16, 536)

+ * Before 1519 – Leonardo uses it for “confused, difficult”.^(DELI 1999)

+ * 1588 – Tasso uses it for “implicated”.^(LEI|16, 536)

+ * 1638 – Galileo uses it for “intricate”.^(LEI|16, 536)

+ * 1865 – The verb ''complicare'' “to make difficult” is recorded.^(DELI 1999)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Adjective===

+ # [[m|en|complicated]], intricate, hard to understand or to solve: ''Le istruzioni del montaggio erano troppo complicate.''^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)

+ # Of a person: hard to understand or deal with, with a contradictory character: ''È una ragazza complicata, ma sincera.''^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)

+ # ''(medicine)'' Of an illness: accompanied by [[m|en|complication|alt=complications]].^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)^(Tommaseo–Bellini 1861)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[complicatamente]]

+ * [[complicatezza]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[complicare]]

+ * [[complicazione]]

+ * [[complicanza]]

+ * [[piegare]]

+ * [[la|complico]]

+ * [[fr|compliqué]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}