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From: "Kath" <>
Subject: [FOLKLORE FAMILY] What's the origin of kudos?
Date: Tue, 14 May 2002 09:40:18 -0700

What's the origin of kudos? I sent a congratulatory word to a college of
mine and without thinking used this word, as in "kudos to Mike for a job
well done".

"Gosh, gee," Mike says, "thanks, I didn't think you'd noticed!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kudos is simply Greek for "praise". It is thought to have entered English
as university slang. By 1799 we have a back-formed verb kudize "to praise",
so kudos itself was probably in use prior to that, though the first known
recorded use of kudos comes from 1831. Thereafter we find it used by the
likes of Disraeli and Darwin. Darwin wrote, in one of his letters: "Lyell
has read about half of the volume in clean sheets, and gives me very great
kudos."

Pronunciation in Britain is "cue-doss" while in America it is "koo-doze".
As with many Greek words, -os indicates a singular noun. Many people assume
kudos is the plural form, with the singular being a kudo. They are wrong.
Just wrong.

There was once a computer operating system called QDOS. Was it named by a
Brit, so that it sounded like kudos, or is that simply a coincidence?

This thread:

• [FOLKLORE FAMILY] What's the origin of kudos? by "Kath" <>