Make Your Point > Archived Issues > COMPLAISANT
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pronounce
COMPLAISANT:
Say it "come PLAY sunt."
To hear it, click here.
connect this word to others:
Did you watch The Good Place? If so, you probably remember Doug Forcett, the character who spends his life complaisantly serving others in an attempt to get into Heaven later.
"Here we go... two waters. Let me know if you're not happy with them. I have ice cubes if it's too warm and a koozie if it's too cold."
As it turns out, even a lifetime of complaisance isn't enough to get you into the Good Place on the show. What a shame. But there's Doug, the face of complaisance.
And here's a cool fact about our word complaisant: it has a doublet. Complacent.
Doublets are lookalike words that have evolved their own spellings and their own meanings, but they trace back to the same root--in this case, the Latin complacere, meaning "to be very pleasing."
In this case, the doublets have the same pronunciation: "come PLAY sunt." That's not always the case. Take the doublets clock and cloak, which both trace back to the Latin clocca, meaning "bell." Neat, right? Because cloaks are bell-shaped, and clocks, possibly, first struck the hour on a bell.
Getting back to complacent and complaisant: the first means "overly pleased with yourself," and the second means "pleasing, agreeable, accommodating, compl___, good-natured, good-humored."
Can you recall that synonym with the blanks? More specifically, it means "willing to obey orders, or willing to follow rules."
(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)
definition:
"Complaisant," from the Latin for "to be pleasing," means willing to please: happy to do what other people ask.
grammatical bits:
Part of speech:
Adjective: "a complaisant personality," "these complaisant employees."
Other forms:
complaisantly, complaisance
how to use it:
Because "complaisant" sounds exactly like "complacent," I recommend leaving it out of your conversations and keeping it confined to your writing, where its spelling will clarify its meaning.
You might pick it instead of synonyms like "agreeable," "compliant," or "obedient" when you need to strike a very formal tone, even a literary or old-fashioned tone.
Complaisance can be a good thing: if your hosts, waiters, children, students, or employees are complaisant, you probably appreciate it.
But it can easily be a bad thing: if companies, nations, political parties, the media, or other powerful groups are complaisant, perhaps they're bending to someone's will instead of doing what's right. Check out both examples below, which call out complaisance as a bad thing.
examples:
"[Jimmy Savile] got away with it because we let him, and he knew we would let him... [New] reports portray institutions that were complaisant – police sympathetic but pusillanimous in the face of what they took to be society's norms, and prosecutors negligently reluctant to risk testing public opinion by pursuing charges."
— The Guardian, 11 January 2013
"The earliest American efforts at raising funds through lotteries failed, largely because the public stayed away, often out of a sense of repugnance. The states that run lotteries today have learned the lesson, wearing away moral objections through a combination of heavy advertising and the trumpeting of huge jackpots by the complaisant media."
— Stephen L. Carter, The Daily Beast, 13 July 2017
has this page helped you understand "complaisant"?
study it:
Explain the meaning of "complaisant" without saying "amiable" or "obliging."
try it out:
In an editorial, David Brooks wrote:
"The grade-point average is one of the more destructive elements in American education... In life we want independent thinking and risk-taking, but the G.P.A. system encourages students to be deferential and risk averse, giving their teachers what they want... The G.P.A. ethos takes spirited children and pushes them to be hard working but complaisant."
Is he right? In your opinion, do grades turn kids into complaisant workers, and is that a terrible thing?
before you review, play:
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
Our game for September is Solve the Square!
It's inspired by Squareword, which is like Wordle but in 3D. In each issue this month, find the 5-letter word that completes the square, creating words both horizontally and vertically. For a bonus point, define the word you've supplied. For the answers, scroll all the way down. Enjoy!
Try this one today:
M
A
D
A
_
O
L
I
V
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N
O
V
E
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T
H
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R
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H
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review this word:
A. RECALCITRANT: uncooperative and disobedient.
B. RUDDERLESS: lacking in a sense of control or direction.
C. RETICENT: unwilling to voice one's thoughts or feelings.
2.
In a novel, Samuel Hearne wrote, "Naturally of a complaisant disposition, he had learned to _____."
A. laugh loudly and easily
B. give whatever was demanded of him
C. steel his senses against both pain and pleasure
a final word:
I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.
From my blog:
On vocabulary...
36 ways to study words.
Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
On writing...
How to improve any sentence.
How to motivate our kids to write.
How to stop procrastinating and start writing.
How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count.
From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.
A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.
Did you watch The Good Place? If so, you probably remember Doug Forcett, the character who spends his life complaisantly serving others in an attempt to get into Heaven later.
"Complaisant," from the Latin for "to be pleasing," means willing to please: happy to do what other people ask.
Part of speech:
Because "complaisant" sounds exactly like "complacent," I recommend leaving it out of your conversations and keeping it confined to your writing, where its spelling will clarify its meaning.
"[Jimmy Savile] got away with it because we let him, and he knew we would let him... [New] reports portray institutions that were complaisant – police sympathetic but pusillanimous in the face of what they took to be society's norms, and prosecutors negligently reluctant to risk testing public opinion by pursuing charges."
Explain the meaning of "complaisant" without saying "amiable" or "obliging."
In an editorial, David Brooks wrote:
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words. |