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compliment

noun
/ˈkɑmpləmənt/US/ˈkɒmplɪmənt/UK

Etymology

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”) + -miento or Latin complēmentum. Doublet of complement. Displaced Old English ġeswǣsnes.

  1. derived from complēmentum
  2. derived from cumplimiento
  3. derived from complimento
  4. borrowed from compliment

Definitions

  1. An expression of praise, congratulation, or respect.

    • pay someone a compliment
    • […] 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.
    • [...] what honour that, but tedious waste of time, to sit and hear So many hollow compliments and lies, Outlandish flatteries?

  2. Complimentary language

    Complimentary language; courtesy, flattery.

    • 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 […]
    • 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.

  3. Misspelling of complement.

  4. ›+ 1 more definition

    1. To pay a compliment (to someone)

      To pay a compliment (to someone); to express a favourable opinion (of someone).

      • […] 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.

The neighborhood

Derived

accompliment, backhanded compliment, backward compliment, Chinese compliment, complimental, complimentary, compliment fishing, complisult, left-handed compliment, miscompliment, poisoned compliment, poisonous compliment, pseudo-compliment, with compliments, complimentable, complimentative, complimentee, complimenter, outcompliment, overcompliment

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at compliment. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01compliment02complement03right04complying05complies06comply07compliments

A definitional loop anchored at compliment. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

7 hops · closes at compliment

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA