Etymograph

English

complease

Complease comes from Middle French complaire ‘to please’, and goes back to Latin placeō.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEplaceō1‘to be pleasing or agreeable to’
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcomplaceō2‘to please or take the fancy of’
  3. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600complaire2‘to please’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1839complease2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin complaceo
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English complease
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1839, Friedrich Schiller, The song of the bell and other poems: “The Germans seem to complease themselves in this sort…”.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEplaceōWiktionary, Latin complaceo‘to be pleasing or agreeable to’
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcomplaceōWiktionary, English complease‘to please or take the fancy of’
  3. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600complaireWiktionary, English complease‘to please’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1839compleaseWiktionary, English complease. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1839, Friedrich Schiller, The song of the bell and other poems: “The Germans seem to complease themselves in this sort…”

Linked words

through Latin placeō ‘to be pleasing or agreeable to’

pleasure, placebo, plead, placid, pleasance, 6 more

Today it means

verb to convince

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “complease”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin complaceo. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Latin placeō / complease

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