AskOxford: Word of the Day

Word of the Day from AskOxford: www.askoxford.com complacent • adjective showing smug or uncritical satisfaction with oneself or one's achievements: you can't afford to be complacent about security. — derivatives complacently adverb. — origin mid 17th cent. (in the sense ‘pleasant’): from Latin complacent- ‘pleasing’, from the verb complacere. — usage Complacent and complaisant are two words which are similar in pronunciation and which both come from the Latin verb complacere ‘to please’, but which in Eng! lish do not mean the same thing. Complacent is the commoner word and means ‘smug and self-satisfied’. Complaisant, on the other hand, means ‘willing to please’, as in the local people proved complaisant and cordial. Writers often use complaisant when they mean complacent: just under half of the citations for complaisant in the Oxford English Corpus exhibit this confusion. Pronunciation available online: www.askoxford.com Source: Oxford Dictionary of English www.oup.com/uk/catalogue/?ci=9780198610571 Useful links from around OUP Do you have a question about the English that you would like answered by language expert Susie Dent in her new book? Send in your question by March 15th and some lucky contributors will see their question answered in print. Click here to submit your question Find out about OUP's Online Products: www.oup.com/online Sign up for Words of the Day in French, Spanish, German, Italian, Russian, or Chinese at www.oxfordlanguagedictionaries.com - now with audio! Special offer disgo and busbi USB keys - preloaded with a 30 day trial of the Concise Oxford English Dictionary: www.clever-stuff.ie We hope you have enjoyed your word of the day. However, if you wish to be removed from the mailing list please visit: www.askoxford.com/contactus/email Copyright © Oxford University Press 2008

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