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."
雙語(yǔ)例句
1. She was an old - fashioned wife, entirely complaisant to her husband's will.
她是位 舊式 的妻子, 對(duì)丈夫百依百順.
來自《現(xiàn)代英漢綜合大詞典》
2. She's always helpful and complaisant.
她總是又殷勤,又樂于助人.
來自《簡(jiǎn)明英漢詞典》
3. He has a pretty and complaisant wife.
他有個(gè)漂亮又溫順的妻子
來自辭典例句
4. A good servant should be complaisant but not servile.
一個(gè)好的仆人應(yīng)該是殷勤的,而不是卑屈的.
來自互聯(lián)網(wǎng)
5. The courtier obeyed the king's orders in a complaisant manner.