compliment
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Borrowed from French compliment, itself a borrowing of Italian complimento, which in turn is a borrowing from Spanish cumplimiento, from cumplir (“to comply, complete, do what is proper”). Doublet of complement. Displaced Old English ġeswǣsnes.
Pronunciation
[edit]- (US) IPA(key): /ˈkɑmpləmənt/
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈkɒmplɪmənt/
Audio (US): (file) - Homophone: complement
Noun
[edit]compliment (plural compliments)
- An expression of praise, congratulation, or respect.
- pay someone a compliment
- c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:
- […] I met him
With customary compliment; when he,
Wafting his eyes to the contrary and falling
A lip of much contempt, speeds from me and
So leaves me to consider what is breeding
That changeth thus his manners.
- 1671, John Milton, “The Fourth Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 65:
- [...] what honour that,
but tedious waste of time, to sit and hear
So many hollow compliments and lies,
Outlandish flatteries?
- 1782, William Cowper, “Table Talk”, in Poems[1], London: J. Johnson, page 37:
- Virtue indeed meets many a rhiming friend,
And many a compliment politely penn’d,
- (uncountable) Complimentary language; courtesy, flattery.
- 1743, Robert Drury, The Pleasant, and Surprizing Adventures of Mr. Robert Drury, during his Fifteen Years Captivity on the Island of Madagascar[2], London, page 25:
- He told the Captain, He was heartily sorry for his Misfortunes; tho’ in my Opinion that was nothing but a Compliment: For, as I found afterwards, he was more brutish, and dishonest, than most of the other Kings on the Island […]
- 1871, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter III, in Middlemarch […], volume I, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book I, page 48:
- This accomplished man condescended to think of a young girl, and take the pains to talk to her, not with absurd compliment, but with an appeal to her understanding, and sometimes with instructive correction.
- Misspelling of complement.
Synonyms
[edit]- See Thesaurus:praise
Antonyms
[edit]Derived terms
[edit]Translations
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Verb
[edit]compliment (third-person singular simple present compliments, present participle complimenting, simple past and past participle complimented)
- (transitive, intransitive) To pay a compliment (to someone); to express a favourable opinion (of someone).
- Antonym: insult
- 1718, Mat[thew] Prior, “Solomon on the Vanity of the World. A Poem in Three Books.”, in Poems on Several Occasions, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], and John Barber […], →OCLC, book II (Pleasure), page 457:
- […] She transferr'd the curs'd Advice, / That Monarchs ſhould their inward Soul diſguise, / Diſſemble, and command; be falſe, and wiſe; / By ignominous Arts for ſervile Ends / Should compliment their Foes, and ſhun their Friends.
- Misspelling of complement.
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
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See also
[edit]Catalan
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From complir. Cf. also Spanish cumplimiento, Latin complementum.
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]compliment m (plural compliments)
Dutch
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Borrowed from French compliment, from Italian complimento, from Old Spanish cumplimiento.
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]compliment n (plural complimenten, diminutive complimentje n)
Derived terms
[edit]Descendants
[edit]- → Papiamentu: kòmplimènt
French
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Borrowed from Italian complimento, itself a borrowing from Spanish cumplimiento, from Latin complēmentum. Doublet of complément.
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]compliment m (plural compliments)
- compliment (positive comment)
Derived terms
[edit]Further reading
[edit]- “compliment”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Romanian
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Borrowed from French compliment.
Noun
[edit]compliment n (plural complimente)
Declension
[edit]singular | plural | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
indefinite articulation | definite articulation | indefinite articulation | definite articulation | |
nominative/accusative | (un) compliment | complimentul | (niște) complimente | complimentele |
genitive/dative | (unui) compliment | complimentului | (unor) complimente | complimentelor |
vocative | complimentule | complimentelor |
- English terms borrowed from French
- English terms derived from French
- English terms derived from Italian
- English terms derived from Spanish
- English doublets
- English 3-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- English terms with homophones
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations
- English uncountable nouns
- English misspellings
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- English intransitive verbs
- en:Talking
- Catalan terms with IPA pronunciation
- Catalan lemmas
- Catalan nouns
- Catalan countable nouns
- Catalan masculine nouns
- Dutch terms derived from French
- Dutch terms derived from Italian
- Dutch terms derived from Old Spanish
- Dutch terms with IPA pronunciation
- Dutch terms with audio links
- Rhymes:Dutch/ɛnt
- Rhymes:Dutch/ɛnt/3 syllables
- Dutch lemmas
- Dutch nouns
- Dutch nouns with plural in -en
- Dutch neuter nouns
- French terms borrowed from Italian
- French terms derived from Italian
- French terms derived from Spanish
- French terms derived from Latin
- French doublets
- French 3-syllable words
- French terms with IPA pronunciation
- French terms with audio links
- French lemmas
- French nouns
- French countable nouns
- French masculine nouns
- Romanian terms borrowed from French
- Romanian terms derived from French
- Romanian lemmas
- Romanian nouns
- Romanian countable nouns
- Romanian neuter nouns