臉上的那一層
這一家就是核心畫面的原型：看得見的外層，透露內在狀態。
skin colour and look · noun · C2
The natural colour or look of the skin on your face.
膚色
核心畫面
A useful picture: the surface you read something by. A face's skin colour and tone is the outward surface that people look at to judge health, mood, age — the visible outside that tells you what kind of thing you are looking at.
一樣東西「呈現在外的那一層」——你就是看那一層來判斷它是什麼樣子。最原始的例子就是臉上的膚色：人家看你的臉色，就大概…更多收起
一樣東西「呈現在外的那一層」——你就是看那一層來判斷它是什麼樣子。最原始的例子就是臉上的膚色：人家看你的臉色，就大概讀出你健康不健康、累不累、氣色好不好。這一層不是東西的全部，卻是外人唯一看得到、也最先拿來判斷的東西。所以 complexion 這個字始終帶著「外觀所透露的整體樣貌」的味道：不只是顏色，而是這個顏色讓人讀出什麼。從臉，到一個政府、一個團體，到一整件事，都可以有它「呈現出來的那個面貌」。From the word’s history
From Old French complexion, from Latin complexiō "a combination, an encompassing", from complector "to entwine, to embrace". In medieval medicine a person's complexion was the particular mixture of the four humours that made up their constitution — and since that inner mixture was believed to show in the face, the word slid from "overall constitution" to "the look of the skin".
這個字來自拉丁文 complexiō「交織、混合而成的整體」（動詞 complector 是「纏繞、環抱」）。中世紀醫學認為一個人由四種體液依特定比例「調和」而成，那個調和出來的體質就叫 complexion；而體質好不好，古人相信會直接寫在臉上。於是這個字從「內在調和出的整體狀態」滑向「臉上看得到的那一層」。這段來歷剛好解釋了為什麼它今天既能講膚色、又能講一個政府的整體性格——它本來講的就是「混合而成的整體樣貌」，臉色只是它最看得見的出口。
Wiktionary (complexion < Old French < Medieval Latin complexiō); medieval humoral sense corroborated by Online Etymology Dictionary
Two branches
事情呈現出的樣貌
從人的臉延伸到事物的「臉」：同樣是那看得見、可據以判斷的整體樣貌。
general character · noun · C2
The general character or nature of something, especially of a government or a group.
面貌
原始詞典資料6 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
complexionnoun/kəmˈplɛkʃən/
- 1
The quality, colour, or appearance of the skin on the face.
- a rugged complexion
- a sunburnt complexion
- 2
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.
- 3
Outlook, attitude, or point of view.
- That minister was galbet, or admiral of the realm, very much in his master’s confidence, and a person well versed in affairs, but of a morose and sour complexion.
- 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.
- 4
obsoletemedicinesciencesThe combination of humours making up one's physiological "temperament", being either hot or cold, and moist or dry.
- Ne ever is he wont on ought to feed / But todes and frogs, his pasture poysonous, / Which in his cold complexion doe breed / A filthy blood […]
- “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. […]
- 5
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.
complexionverb/kəmˈplɛkʃən/
- 1
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.
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。