complexion

Etymology

From Middle English complexion (“temperament”), from Old French complexion (French complexion), from Medieval Latin complexiō (“complexion, constitution”), from complector, past participle complexus (“to entwine, encompass”).

noun

1. (obsolete, medicine) The combination of humours making up one's physiological "temperament", being either hot or cold, and moist or dry.
2. The quality, colour, or appearance of the skin on the face.
   a rugged complexion
   a sunburnt complexion
3. (figurative) The outward appearance of something.
   It was a little unfortunate that the fib unfibbed gave their consultations something the complexion of that close understanding which exists between penitent and confessor. 1910, Bernard Capes, Why Did He Do It?, page 207
4. Outlook, attitude, or point of view.
   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. 1844, E. A. Poe, Marginalia
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.

verb

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