About

Jeff Bezos' Complexifier refers to a word used by Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos in a Medium blog post alleging the tabloid the National Enquirer of extortion. Many online used the word as a means to mock Bezos and the controversy, while others were skeptical as to whether or not "complexifier" was a real word.

Origin

On February 7th, in a blog post on the website Medium,^[1] Bezos responded to what he describes as "extortion and blackmail" from American Media, Inc. (AMI), the Nation Enquirer and its owner David Pecker. In the post, he states that Washington Post investigations have determined that "Mr. Pecker has used the Enquirer and AMI for political reasons," particularly in regards to Pecker's relationship with the government of Saudi Arabia.

In this post, he continues:

Here’s a piece of context: My ownership of the Washington Post is a complexifier for me. It’s unavoidable that certain powerful people who experience Washington Post news coverage will wrongly conclude I am their enemy.

(Even though The Post is a complexifier for me, I do not at all regret my investment. The Post is a critical institution with a critical mission. My stewardship of The Post and my support of its mission, which will remain unswerving, is something I will be most proud of when I’m 90 and reviewing my life, if I’m lucky enough to live that long, regardless of any complexities it creates for me.)

Spread

Following the post, people online began mocking the word, as it became a trending topic on Twitter. Intercept reporter Sam Biddle tweeted,^[2] "the [uncanny] valley-ness of 'complexifier' really makes me think 'I love you, alive girl' was not an autocorrect/typo." Within 24 hours, the tweet received more than 20 retweet and 300 likes (shown below, left).

New Yorker writer Emily Nussbaum tweeted,^[3] "I like that he used the word 'complexifier,' bc it means that he definitely wrote it himself and is an actual person who would get into a petty argument with a copy editor." The tweet received more than 100 retweets and 1,000 likes in 24 hours (shown below, center).

The Twitter account for Dictionary.com tweeted,^[4] "This is about to get complex, so bear with us. Complexify is a rare word. Complexifier is even more rare. #ButTheyreStillWords." Within in 24 hours, the tweet received more than 40 retweets and 240 likes (shown below, right).

While many speculated that the word was not a word, The New York Times reported that it was a French word.^[7] They wrote, "Well, no, not according to many dictionaries. It’s French! According to the online Larousse dictionary, it means (not surprisingly) to make something more complex or complicated."

Several media outlets covered the usage of the word, including USA Today,^[5] Slate,^[6] The New York Times^[7] and more.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References