different between complaisant vs agreeable

English

Etymology

From French complaisant (“willing to please”), from complaire, from Latin complac?re, present active infinitive of complace? (“please well”), from com- (“with”) + place? (“please”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /k?m?ple?s?nt/
• Homophone: complacent
• (US) IPA^(key): /k?m?ple?s?nt/, /k?m?ple?z?nt/

Adjective

complaisant (comparative more complaisant, superlative most complaisant)

1. Compliant.
2. Willing to do what pleases others; obliging.
3. (archaic) Polite; showing respect.

Usage notes

• Complaisant should not be confused with its homophone, complacent.

Derived terms

• complaisantly

Related terms

• complaisance

Translations

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k??.pl?.z??/

Verb

complaisant

1. present participle of complaire

Adjective

complaisant (feminine singular complaisante, masculine plural complaisants, feminine plural complaisantes)

1. complaisant, obliging, eager to please

Derived terms

• mari complaisant

Further reading

• “complaisant” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

English

Etymology

From Middle English agreable, from Old French agreable; displaced native Old English cweme (“pleasing, agreeable”). Equivalent to agree +? -able.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /????i??bl/

Adjective

agreeable (comparative more agreeable, superlative most agreeable)

1. pleasant to the senses or the mind

   • the train of agreeable reveries.

2. (dated) Willing; ready to agree or consent.
   • 1529, Hugh Latimer, sermon in Cambridge

     These Frenchmen give unto the said captain of Calais a great sum of money, so that he will be but content and agreeable that they may enter into the said town.

3. Agreeing or suitable; followed by to, or rarely by with.

   Synonyms: conformable, correspondent, concordant
4. In pursuance, conformity, or accordance; used adverbially

Synonyms

• (pleasing, pleasant): See Thesaurus:pleasant
• (willing): See Thesaurus:acquiescent
• (conforming): See Thesaurus:agreeable

Translations

Noun

agreeable (plural agreeables)

1. Something pleasing; anything that is agreeable.
   • 1855, Blackwood's magazine (volume 77, page 331)

     The disagreeables of travelling are necessary evils, to be encountered for the sake of the agreeables of resting and looking round you.

Further reading

• agreeable in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• agreeable in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.