# compliment
## English
### Pronunciation

* (US) IPA: /ˈkɑmpləmənt/
* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈkɒmplɪmənt/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Homophone: complement

### Etymology 1

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.

#### Noun

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, 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, 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

* See Thesaurus:praise

##### Antonyms

* insult

##### Derived terms

* backhanded compliment
* backward compliment (backwards compliment)
* Chinese compliment
* complimental
* complimentary
* compliment fishing
* complisult
* dubious compliment
* left-handed compliment
* miscompliment
* poisoned compliment
* poisonous compliment
* pseudo-compliment
* with compliments

##### Translations
### Etymology 2

Borrowed from French complimenter, from compliment + -er (verb-forming suffix).

#### Verb

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

* complimentable
* complimentative
* complimentee
* complimenter
* outcompliment
* overcompliment

##### Translations
### See also

* complement

### References

* ↑ “compliment, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

## Catalan
### Etymology

From complir. Cf. also Spanish cumplimiento, Latin complementum.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: (Central) [kum.pliˈmen]
* IPA: (Balearic, Valencia) [kom.pliˈment]

### Noun

compliment m (plural compliments)
* compliment

#### Derived terms

* complimentar
* complimentós

### Further reading

* “compliment”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025

## Dutch
### Etymology

Borrowed from French compliment, from Italian complimento, from Old Spanish cumplimiento.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˌkɔm.pliˈmɛnt/
* Audio:(file)
* Hyphenation: com‧pli‧ment
* Rhymes: -ɛnt

### Noun

compliment n (plural complimenten, diminutive complimentje n)
* compliment

#### Derived terms

* complimenteus

#### Descendants

* → Papiamentu: kòmplimènt

## French
### Etymology

Borrowed from Italian complimento, itself a borrowing from Spanish cumplimiento, from Latin complēmentum. Doublet of complément.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /kɔ̃.pli.mɑ̃/
* Audio:(file)

### Noun

compliment m (plural compliments)
* compliment (positive comment)

#### Derived terms

* complimenter

### Further reading

* “compliment”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

## Romanian
### Etymology

Borrowed from French compliment.

### Noun

compliment n (plural complimente)
* compliment