Happy Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples Day/Día de la Raza. I'll be honest, sleep did not come easily last night. I've been battling what I think are allergies, maybe it's a cold or perhaps it's just your run-of-the-mill fear of Asian nuclear proliferation, I'm not sure. What I do know is that unlike a substantial percentage of the American workforce I have to work today; as a protest you're receiving an abbreviated hump, chockablockquote:
Kudos
Acclaim or praise for exceptional achievement.
[Greek kūdos, magical glory.]
USAGE NOTE Kudos is one of those words like congeries that look like plurals but are etymologically singular. Acknowledging the Greek history of the term requires Kudos is (not are) due her for her brilliant work on the score. But kudos has often been treated as a plural, especially in the popular press, as in She received many kudos for her work. This plural use has given rise to the singular form kudo. These innovations follow the pattern whereby the English words pea and cherry were shortened from nouns ending in an (s) sound (English pease and French cerise), that were mistakenly thought to be plural. The singular kudo remains far less common than the plural use; both are often viewed as incorrect in more formal contexts. • It is worth noting that even people who are careful to treat kudos only as a singular often pronounce it as if it were a plural. Etymology would require that the final consonant be pronounced as a voiceless (s), as we do in pathos, another word derived from Greek, rather than as a voiced (z).
Kudos [American Heritage Dictionary]
Labels: Greek, The Daily Hump
