complicity

English

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] French complicité, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Middle French, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old French complice (“accomplice”), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Late Latin complic-, stem of complex (“partner, confederate”), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin complicō (“fold together”)

Noun

complicity (countable and uncountable, plural complicities)

2. The state of being complicit; involvement as a partner or accomplice, especially in a crime or other wrongdoing.
   • 1854, Charles Dickens, chapter 32, in Hard Times:

     He drew up a placard, offering Twenty Pounds reward for the apprehension of Stephen Blackpool, suspected of complicity in the robbery of Coketown Bank.

3. (archaic) Complexity.
   • 1861, Dr. Marx, "Musical Education and Instruction," The Musical Times, vol. 10, no. 220, p. 53:

     How easy is it, on the other hand, to an enlightened teacher, particularly in the beginning, to elucidate the various forms of rhythm by methodical arrangement in respect of simplicity and increasing complicity or mixture!

Synonyms

• (involvement as a partner or accomplice, especially in wrongdoing): collusion, complicitousness, connivance

Derived terms

• complicitous

Related terms

• accomplice

Translations

The state of being complicit

• Albanian: bashkëfajësi (sq) f
• Bulgarian: съучастничество n (sǎučastničestvo)
• Catalan: complicitat (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 同謀／同谋 (zh) (tóngmóu), 同谋 (zh) (tóngmóu), 共謀／共谋 (zh) (gòngmóu), 共谋 (zh) (gòngmóu)

• Esperanto: kompliceco
• Finnish: osallisuus (fi)
• French: complicité (fr) f
• German: Mittäterschaft f, Mitschuld (de) f, Teilhaberschaft f, Komplizenschaft (de) f, Tatbeteiligung f, Komplizität f (rare)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Hungarian: bűnrészesség (hu)
• Italian: complicità (it) f
• Japanese: 共犯 (きょうはん, kyōhan)
• Persian: همدستی (fa) (hamdasti), همدستی در جرم
• Portuguese: cumplicidade f
• Russian: соуча́стие (ru) n (součástije)
• Serbo-Croatian: suučesništvo (sh), saučesništvo
• Spanish: complicidad (es) f

Anagrams

• polymictic