" compliment "

[Noun]  | "com*pli*ment" | \ ˈkäm-plə-mənt \

1: an expression of esteem, respect, affection, or admiration; especially : an admiring remark

2: formal and respectful recognition : honor

3: best wishes : regards

Origin: 1598 ;

 Borrowed from French, Italian & Spanish; French, borrowed from Italian & Spanish; Italian complimento, borrowed from Spanish cumplimiento, complimiento "offer made solely for reasons of etiquette," earlier "abundance," from cumplir "to go along (with), meet the expectations (of), satisfy (obligations of courtesy)," earlier, "to carry out, execute, fulfill" + -miento {see: |-ment|-ment} {mat|comply|comply};

  * Note : In the seventeenth century the word was often spelled complement, and {complement:1|complement:1} was occasionally spelled compliment. Senses of complement current in early Modern English, as "any observance that tends to give completeness to the expression of worship, honour, reverence, or the like" (Oxford English Dictionary, first edition) tend to shade into compliment, so that it is difficult to know if authors recognized a difference between the words.;

[Noun]  | "backhanded compliment" 

1: a compliment that implies it is not really a compliment at all

[Verb]  | "com*pli*ment" | \ ˈkäm-plə-ˌment \

1: to express esteem, respect, affection, or admiration to : to pay a compliment to

2: to present with a token of esteem

Origin: 1673 ;

 Borrowed from French complimenter, derivative of compliment {see: |compliment:1|compliment:1};

[Idiom]  | "pay (someone) a compliment" 

1: to say something nice about (someone)

[Idiom]  | "take a compliment" 

1: to believe that the nice things said about one are true —usually used in negative statements

[Noun]  | "compliment" 

[Verb]  | "compliment"