complexion

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com·plex·ion / kəmˈplekshən/ • n. 1. the natural color, texture, and appearance of a person's skin, esp. of the face: an attractive girl with a pale complexion.2. the general aspect or character of something: Congress's new complexion became boldly apparent last summer.DERIVATIVES: com·plex·ioned adj. [often in comb.] they were both fair-complexioned.ORIGIN: Middle English: via Old French from Latin complexio(n-) ‘combination’ (in late Latin ‘physical constitution’), from complectere ‘embrace, comprise.’ The term originally denoted physical constitution or temperament determined by the combination of the four bodily humors, hence sense 1 (late 16th cent.) as a visible sign of this.

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