Etymology

complaisant

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Today it means: Compliant. Full definition →

French complaisant ← Latin complacēre
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The story

  1. Latin · derived fromcomplacēre“please well”
  2. French · derived fromcomplaisant“willing to please”
  3. English todaycomplaisant

From French complaisant (“willing to please”), from complaire, from Latin complacēre (“please well”), from com- (“with”) + placeō (“please”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.