Words of the Day: Complacence and Complaisance – Homonyms!
complacence
com-pla-cence / kəm-plā-səns
noun
1. satisfaction, particularly self satisfaction
Often would self-complacence spread
Harmonious halos round my head;
And all my being own’d awhile
The warm diffusion of her smile.
From “The Lay Of Marie” by Matilda Betham, 1776 – 1852
2. lack of care or concern
The enrichment of Colonel Byrd, even by ways that were devious, was viewed with complacence by his neighbors so long as it harmed them not.
From “Beginnings of the American People” by Carl Lotus Becker, 1873 – 1945
etymology
From the present active participle of the Latin verb complaceo, complacere, complacui, complacitus (to be pleasing at the same time, to please greatly).
