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  1. perplexed love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. adj. Filled with confusion or bewilderment; puzzled.
  2. adj. Full of complications or difficulty; involved.

Wiktionary

  1. adj. Confused or puzzled.
  2. adj. Bewildered.
  3. v. Simple past tense and past participle of perplex.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. adj. Entangled, involved, or confused; hence, embarrassd; puzzled; doubtful; anxious.

WordNet 3.0

  1. adj. full of difficulty or confusion or bewilderment

Etymologies

  1. Middle English, from perplex, confused, from Old French perplexe, from Latin perplexus : per-, per- + plexus, past participle of plectere, to entwine; see plek- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

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Comments

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  • qroqqa An interesting point. The OED notes that Latin had no verb *perplectere, only the adjective perplex-us, which looks like it's the past participle of such a verb, but might instead have come from per- "thoroughly" + the past participle plex-us of plect-ere "plait, interweave, entangle".

    The English adjective was originally 'perplex', with the other words (verb and 'perplexed') derived from it.
    Aug 29, 2008

  • Prolagus After reading the conversation on rumoured, I just thought this one might interest you as well.
    A similar reflection might be done about perplexed, I guess, at least in Italian.
    Some (rather knowledgeable) people try to use the verb perplimere (something like to perplime) as the infinitive of perplexed.
    The Accademia della Crusca states that it doesn't exist (it was made up for a comical TV show in the 90's), but as a back-formation it's very interesting indeed.
    Is perplex a back-formation as well? Aug 29, 2008

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‘perplexed’ has been looked up 3002 times, loved by 3 people, added to 46 lists, commented on 2 times, and has a Scrabble score of 21.