different between complexion vs outlook

English

Alternative forms

• complection (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English complexion (“temperament”), from Old French complexion (French complexion), from Latin complexi? (“a combination, connection, period”), from complecti, past participle complexus (“to entwine, encompass”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /k?m?pl?k??n/
• Rhymes: -?k??n
• Hyphenation: com?plex?ion

Noun

complexion (plural complexions)

1. (obsolete, medicine) The combination of humours making up one's physiological "temperament", being either hot or cold, and moist or dry.
   • “Indeed, sir,” answered the lady, with some warmth, “I cannot think there is anything easier than to cheat an old woman with a profession of love, when her complexion is amorous; and, though she is my aunt, I must say there never was a more liquorish one than her ladyship. […]

2. The quality, colour, or appearance of the skin on the face.
   • 1596-99?, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, act II, scene i:

     Prince of Morocco: Mislike me not for my complexion, / The shadow’d livery of the burnish’d sun, / To whom I am a neighbour, and near bred. [...]

   • This new-comer was a man who in any company would have seemed striking. In complexion fair, and with blue or gray eyes, he was tall as any Viking, as broad in the shoulder.

3. (figuratively) The outward appearance of something.
4. Outlook, attitude, or point of view.
   • 1844, E. A. Poe, Marginalia

     But the purely marginal jottings, done with no eye to the Memorandum Book, have a distinct complexion, and not only a distinct purpose, but none at all; this it is which imparts to them a value.

5. (loanword, especially in scientific works translated from German) An arrangement.
   • 1909, Ludwig Boltzmann, translated by Kim Sharp and Franz Matschinsky

     Second there is the level at which the energy or velocity components of each molecule are specified. He calls this a Komplexion, which we translate literally as complexion.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:countenance

Related terms

• complect
• complex
• complexional

Translations

Verb

complexion (third-person singular simple present complexions, present participle complexioning, simple past and past participle complexioned)

1. (transitive) To give a colour to.
   • 2003, Leland Krauth, Mark Twain & Company: Six Literary Relations (page 118)

     From the pale refinement of her genteel heroine to the sallow complexioning of poor white trash, Stowe colors her narrative with the hues of the body.

Further reading

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

Old French

Etymology

First known attestation circa 1120, borrowed from Latin complexi?.

Noun

complexion f (oblique plural complexions, nominative singular complexion, nominative plural complexions)

1. (medicine) complexion (combination of humours making up one's physiological "temperament")

References

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (complession, supplement)

English

Etymology

From out- +? look.

Pronunciation

• Noun:
  • IPA^(key): /?a?t?l?k/
• Verb:
  • IPA^(key): /?a?t?l?k/
• Rhymes: -?k

Noun

outlook (plural outlooks)

1. A place from which something can be viewed.

   Synonyms: vantage point, overlook

   • 1667, Edward Waterhouse, A Short Narrative of the Late Dreadful Fire in London, London: Richard Thrale et al., p. 97,^[1]

     This fetched tears from the innocent eyes, those Casements and out-looks of the tender heart of our Lord Jesus, who beholding the City Ierusalem wept over it,

2. The view from such a place.
3. An attitude or point of view.

   Synonyms: attitude, opinion, perspective, point of view, vantage point, viewpoint

4. Expectation for the future.

   Synonyms: expectation, prognosis, prospect

Translations

Verb

outlook (third-person singular simple present outlooks, present participle outlooking, simple past and past participle outlooked)

1. (intransitive, archaic, literary) To face or look in an outward direction.

   Synonym: look out

   • 1610, Gervase Markham, Markhams Maister-peece, or, What Doth a Horse-man Lack? London, Chapter 103 “Certaine speciall Notes to be obserued in buying of a horse,” pp. 204-205,^[2]

     [...] marke his colour and his shape, that is to say, a comely well proportioned head, with an outlooking eye, good well raised shoulders, and a thicke large breast [...]

   • 1622, Samuel Purchas, The Kings Towre and Triumphant Arch of London, London, 1623, pp. 32-33,^[3]

     A Towre [...] is, or ought to be [...] mounted with bulwarks, towred with turrets, battailed for out-looking artillerie, enclosed with ditches [...]

   • 1895, Henry van Dyke, “Alpenrosen and Goat’s Milk” in Little Rivers, New York: Scribner, p. 150,^[4]

     [...] would we look at the rooms? Outlooking on the piazza, with a balcony from which we could observe the Festa of to-morrow.
2. (transitive, archaic) To look at (someone) so long or intently that they look away; to win or prevail over (someone or something).

   Synonyms: outstare, face down, browbeat, overcome

   • c. 1596, William Shakespeare, King John, Act V, Scene 2,^[5]

     [...] I drew this gallant head of war,

     And cull’d these fiery spirits from the world,

     To outlook conquest and to win renown

     Even in the jaws of danger and of death.

   • c. 1611, George Chapman (translator), The Iliads of Homer, London: Nathaniell Butter, Book 11, p. 145,[6]

     There made they stand; there euerie eye, fixt on each other, stroue

     Who should outlooke his mate amaz’d:

   • 1645, Henry Hammond, XXXI Sermons Preached on Several Occasions, London: Richard Royston, 1684, Sermon 8, p. 519,^[7]

     [...] the news of the judgment to come, in the Preachers mouth, will be under an heavy suspicion of fraud and cheat, and in fine, pass but for fictions [...] too weak to outlook a brave glittering temptation:

   • 1838, Thomas Miller, Royston Gower, London: W. Nicholson, Chapter 37, p. 329,^[8]

     Once or twice he attempted to outlook the Saxon prisoner, but Hereward shrank not beneath his glance [...]

   • 1911, Henry Gilbert, King Arthur’s Knights: The Tales Retold for Boys & Girls, Edinburgh & London: T.C. & E.C. Jack, Chapter 11, p. 299,^[9]

     The pain which the king suffered would have softened any ordinary heart; but the murderer was a hard and callous wretch, and his brazen eyes outlooked the king.

3. (transitive, obsolete) To be more attractive than (someone or something).
   • 1731, Mary Delany, letter dated 4 October, 1731, in George Paston (ed.), Mrs. Delany (Mary Granville): A Memoir, 1700-1788, London: Grant Richards, 1900, p. 64,^[10]

     Nobody’s equipage outlooked ours except my Lord Lieutenant’s, but in every respect I must say Mrs. Clayton outshines her neighbours [...]

   • 1793, Hester Piozzi, letter dated 22 May, 1793, in Oswald G. Knapp (ed.), The Intimate Letters of Hester Piozzi and Penelope Pennington, 1788-1821, London: The Bodley Head, 1914, p. 89,^[11]

     [...] Sally quite outlooked her sister by the bye, and was very finely drest.

   • 1862, B. F. Taylor, diary entry dated 5 November, 1862, in E. R. Hutchins (ed.), The War of the Sixties, New York: The Neale Publishing Company, 1912, p. 36,^[12]

     Burnside, handsome, stately, outlooked his chief on horseback as on foot.

4. (transitive, obsolete) To inspect throughly; to select.
   • 1689, Charles Cotton, “The Angler’s Ballad” in Poems on Several Occasions, London: Thomas Bassett et al., p. 76,^[13]

     Away to the Brook,

     All your Tackle out look,

     Here’s a day that is worth a year’s wishing;

     See that all things be right,

     For ’tis a very spight

     To want tools when a man goes a fishing.

5. (transitive, obsolete) To look beyond (something).
   • 1680, John Yalden, Compendium Politicum, or, The Distempers of Government, London: Robert Clavel, p. 54,^[14]

     [...] to fit minds to so even a temper, that both should round the same circle, and never out-look the Horizon of their reciprocal Interest, is a work altogether impossible.

Derived terms

• outlooker

Anagrams

• Lookout, look out, look-out, lookout