Comments on: Complacent, Complaisant

By: norhatom

norhatom — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:14:56 +0000

Brad,
well the two words are pronunced slightly the same. Many of us and even students especially may not notice this.This will further confuse learners especially 2nd language learners. What do you think?

By: Sharon Hurley Hall

Sharon Hurley Hall — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 12:23:03 +0000

Brad, compliant comes from the Latin for ‘to complete’ and the dictionary of etymology lists ‘be complaisant with’ as one of the meanings for comply.

Rick, I don’t hear the word much, but I do see it in books. According to Collins English Dictionary, the use of ‘complacent’ as a synonym for ‘complaisant’ is obsolete.

By: RickMinor

RickMinor — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 17:23:58 +0000

Good Morning, Now I am really confused. I guess my example would be: If I am speaking with two different employees and I tell one that they are complacent and the other that they are complaisant I will get the same negative response from both, even though I have two different meanings in mind. To further muddle the issue, Answer.com gives both meanings for the word complacent. Is there much usage of the word complaisant? Quite honestly, I’ve never encountered the word before today.

Thank you,
Rick

By: Brad K.

Brad K. — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 14:40:38 +0000

I wonder if compliant is a corruption of complaisant? Interesting.

By: Toga

Toga — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 12:57:05 +0000

Thanks for your information