complaisant: [17] Complaisant and complacent [17] are virtual doublets. Both come from Latin complacēre ‘please greatly’ (a compound verb formed from placēre, source of English please), but they reached English along different routes. Complaisant came via French, from complaisant, the present participle of complaire ‘gratify’, but complacent was a direct borrowing from the Latin present participle. It originally meant simply ‘pleasant, delightful’, and did not take on its present derogatory connotations (at first expressed by the now obsolete complacential) until the mid 18th century. => complacent, please
complaisant (adj.)
1640s, from French complaisant (16c.), in Middle French, "pleasing," present participle of complaire "acquiesce to please," from Latin complacere "be very pleasing" (see complacent, with which it overlapped till mid-19c.). Possibly influenced in French by Old French plaire "gratify."
双语例句
1. She was an old - fashioned wife, entirely complaisant to her husband's will.
她是位 旧式 的妻子, 对丈夫百依百顺.
来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
2. She's always helpful and complaisant.
她总是又殷勤,又乐于助人.
来自《简明英汉词典》
3. He has a pretty and complaisant wife.
他有个漂亮又温顺的妻子
来自辞典例句
4. A good servant should be complaisant but not servile.
一个好的仆人应该是殷勤的,而不是卑屈的.
来自互联网
5. The courtier obeyed the king's orders in a complaisant manner.
