Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Words: Kudos

Kudos is a singular noun (from the Greek) - there is no such thing as a "kudo", DrWeb. Nor is there an apostrophe, Savvy Chick.

What is the opposite of "kudos"? May I suggest "menudos"? As in, "Kudos to Spoon for their angular yet melodic pop-rock. Menudos to Robbers On High Street for sounding so much like Spoon.

There's always "brickbat". Is it a bat made out bricks, or a bat designed for hitting bricks? No, just a piece of brick. (From the Middle English sense of "bat", meaning a "chunk".)

This article on legal language quotes a case from 1631, when English was slowly replacing French:

(The accused) ject un brickbat a le dit justice, que narrowly mist.

Kudos is also the brand name of a granola bar that is very close to being a candy bar.

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