'Comply' blends Latin 'to fill up' and 'to fold together' — completion and folding merged into obedience.
To act in accordance with a wish, command, rule, or requirement; to meet specified standards.
From Italian 'complire' or Spanish 'cumplir' (to fulfill an obligation, to complete, to satisfy), derived from Latin 'complēre' (to fill up, to complete), composed of 'com-' (together, intensive) + 'plēre' (to fill), from PIE *pleh₁- (to fill). The word's path to English is complicated by folk etymology: because the English form 'comply' ends in '-ply' (like 'apply,' 'supply,' 'imply,' 'reply' — all ultimately from Latin 'plicāre,' to fold), speakers associated it with the folding family rather than the filling family. This created a dual etymology in English
The etymological history of 'comply' is unusually tangled — it blends Latin 'complēre' (to fill up) with the influence of 'complicāre' (to fold together). The metaphor of 'folding together' with someone's wishes and 'filling up' their requirements merged into a single verb, making 'comply' a genuine etymological hybrid.
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