complacent 復習

　Terry Smith has emerged as Britain’s top investment performer once again after another year of stellar returns – while Neil Woodford languishes at the bottom of the tables after his worst year on the stock market for two decades.
　When Smith launched Fundsmith Equity in November 2010 he boldly promised it would be “the best fund ever”, and would give the “fat and complacent” fund management industry a bloody nose. It sounded like bluster and bravado, but he was true to his word. In 2017, Fundsmith Equity gave its investors a gain of just over 22% – easily outstripping the 10% investors would pick up from an index-tracking fund in the UK, or 12% from US trackers, where most of Fundsmith Equity’s money is invested. (Skip the rest)

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/dec/30/terry-smith-fundsmith-beat-market-2017

　今回取り上げる語は、complacent /kəmpléɪsnt/ です。
　まず、意味を確認します。『ジーニアス英和辞典』(大修館)でみると、「(1)<…に対して>ひとりよがりの、自己満足の ; のんきな」とあります。また、名詞形が complacency で、「[悪い意味で]満悦、自己満足、ひとりよがり」となっています。LDOCEをみると、“pleased with a situation, especially something you have achieved, so that you stop trying to improve or change things” とあります。
　次に語源を確認します。OEDをみると、“Mid 17th century: from Latin complacent- ‘pleasing’, from the verb complacere.” とあります。
　最後に同意表現を確認します。complacent の同意表現として、self-satisfied が挙げられます。これはOEDによれば、“Excessively satisfied with oneself or one’s achievements; smugly complacent.” とあります。単に satisfaction と比較すれば、“complacent is uncritically satisfied with oneself or one's achievements; smug.” “satisfaction is a fulfillment of a need or desire.” (WikiDiff)となります。(Okauchi)