Compliment & Complement

Compliment (pronounced kom-pluh-muhnt (noun) or kom-pluh-ment (verb))

(1) An expression of praise, commendation, or admiration.

(2) A formal act or expression of civility, respect, or regard.

(3) A courteous greeting; good wishes; regards.

(4) To pay a compliment to.

(5) To show kindness or regard for by a gift or other favour.

1570–1580: From the French compliment from the Italian complimento, a borrowing from the Spanish cumplimiento from cumplir (to complete, do what is proper or fitting, be polite).  The construct was compli- (from complir) + -miento (from the Old Spanish, from the Late Latin -mentum, from the Classical Latin -menta. A doublet of –mento (and used as the suffix –ment in Modern English), it formed nouns from verbs with the sense of the action or process.  Compliment is a doublet of complement and the synonyms include admiration, applause, commendation, homage, ovation, blessing, courtesy, adulation, endorsement, tribute, congratulate, applaud, laud, commend, cajole, endorse, extol, acclaim, bouquet and confirmation.  Compliment is a noun, complimenter is a noun, complimenting & complimented are verbs and complimentary, complimentable & complimentative are adjectives; the noun plural is compliments.  Complimentarity is a misspelling of complementarity.

Human nature being what it is, there are sincere compliments and “backhanded compliments”, the latter best understood in the portmanteau word "complisult", the construct of the blend being compl(iment) +‎ insult.  In the language of nineteenth century diplomacy it was known as the “Chinese compliment” (a pretense of deference; a veiled or subtle insult), based on the practice at the time for the Chinese to do thing like allocate foreign delegations lower chairs at the table when signing treaties.  China was then a weak power and compelled to make some unsatisfactory agreements but what also annoyed them was the Western diplomats seems not to mind, instead going away happy with their lucrative treaties in hand.  This was interpreted as the “foreign devils” being too stupid to comprehend the Middle Kingdom’s subtleties.  Other forms, all in some way variations on “damning with faint praise” include the “dubious compliment”, the “left-handed compliment”, the “poisonous compliment” and the “pseudo-compliment”.  For those prepared to take the risk, there’s the art (a calling for some) of “compliment fishing” (the act of self-deprecating for the purpose of baiting other people into giving praise or compliments).

Complement (pronounced kom-pluh-muhnt (noun) or kom-pluh-ment (verb))

(1) Something which completes, something which combines with something else to make up a complete whole (ie makes perfect); loosely, something perceived to be a harmonious or desirable partner or addition.

(2) The quantity or amount that completes anything.

(3) Either of two parts or things needed to complete the whole; counterpart.

(4) To complete something by some addition.

(5) The totality, the full amount or number which completes something.

(6) In nautical use, the whole working force of a vessel.

(7) In astronomy & geometry, an angle which, together with a given angle, makes a right angle.

(8) In formal grammar & linguistics, a word or group of words which completes a grammatical construction in the predicate and that describes or is identified with the subject or object.

(9) In music, an interval which, together with the given interval, makes an octave.

(10) In optics, the color which, when mixed with the given color, gives black (for mixing pigments) or white (for mixing light).

(11) In set theory, given two sets, the set containing one set's elements that are not members of the other set (whether a relative complement or an absolute complement)

(12) In immunology, one of several blood proteins that work with antibodies during an immune response.

(13) In formal logic, an expression related to some other expression such that it is true under the same conditions that make other false, and vice versa.

(14) In electronics, a voltage level with the opposite logical sense to the given one.

(15) In computing, a bit with the opposite value to the given one; the logical complement of a number.

(16) In computing & mathematics, the diminished radix complement of a number; the nines' complement of a decimal number; the ones' complement of a binary number; the numeric complement of a number.

(17) In genetics, a nucleotide sequence in which each base is replaced by the complementary base of the given sequence: adenine (A) by thymine (T) or uracil (U), cytosine (C) by guanine (G), and vice versa (a DNA molecule is formed from two strands, each of which is the complement of the other).

(18) In biochemistry, a synonym of alexin (a protective substance that exists in the serum or other bodily fluid and is capable of killing microorganisms).

(19) In economics, a clipping of complementary good (a good, the appeal of which increases with the popularity of its complement).

(20) Someone or something which completes; the consummation (archaic).

(21) The act of completing something, or the fact of being complete; completion, completeness, fulfilment (obsolete).

(22) Something which completes one's equipment, dress etc; an accessory (obsolete).

(23) An alternative spelling of compliment (obsolete although misspellings persist).

1350–1400: From the fourteenth century French complément, from the Old French compliement (accomplishment, fulfillment), from the Latin complēmentum (something that completes; that which fills up or completes) from compleō (I fill up, I complete) from complēre (fill up), the construct being com- (thought most likely used as an intensive prefix) + plere (to fill) from the primitive Indo-European root pele- (to fill).  The construct of the Latin complēmentum was complē(re) + -mentum (from the Latin suffix -menta (in collective nouns like armenta (herd, flock)); the Latin -menta was from the primitive Indo-European -mnthe.  Complement is a doublet of compliment.  From the early seventeenth century, the meaning "full quality or number," was assumed while the musical sense of "simple interval that completes an octave from another simple interval" dates from 1873.  During the sixteenth century, the word was used also in the senses taken up between circa 1650-circa1725 by compliment.  The verb in the sense of "make complete" was in use by the 1640s and was derived from the noun.  The evolution of use is illustrated by the long-obsolete sense of "exchange courtesies" (in use in the 1610s) which came from the noun complement, a hint of the sixteenth century sense "that which is added, not as necessary, but as ornamental".  Complement & complementary are nouns & verbs, complementarity is a noun, complementing & complemented are verbs and complemental is an adjective; the noun plural is complements.

Lindsay Lohan in an Alice Temperley (b 1975) gown, complemented with silver and diamond cluster jewelry, front at back, Montecito, California August 2011.

The gown attracted many compliments from the fashionistas, the details of the cutaway back especially admired, but many dwelt on the matter of whether a guest should wear white to a wedding, the occasion Kim Kardashian’s (b 1980) (second) marriage to Kris Humphries (b 1985).  However, there was a strict “black & white” dress code for the event and there was a lot of white on display and Ms Kardashian is anyway hard to upstage.  Ms Lohan’s gown had been seen a few months earlier, the also much complimented Pippa Middleton (b 1983) wearing one in emerald when attending the party after her sister married a prince.

Complement and compliment, which (noun & verb) are pronounced alike and originally shared some meanings, evolved to become separate words with entirely different meanings.  As a noun, complement means “something that augments, completes or makes perfect”.  As a verb, complement means “to add to or complete”.  The noun compliment means “an expression of praise, commendation, or admiration”.  The verb compliment means “to pay a compliment to”.  In the jargon of formal grammar, complement means “that which completes or helps to complete the verb, making with it the predicate (this the widest sense of the word, not the direct object of a transitive verb or adverbs.  In one of the paradoxes he delighted in recounting, Henry Fowler (1858–1933) in his A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (1926) noted this was “the most reasonable application of the term” while being also both the “least useful and the least used”.  Warming to the topic he pointed out that not infrequently the “direct object is excluded but all other modifications or appendages of the verb are called complements; a sense found convenient in sentence analysis but too wide to be precise and too narrow to be logical.”  Further to complicate complement, another restriction is the definitional net permits the catch only of those words or phrases so essential to the verb “that they form one notion with it and its meaning would be incomplete” were they to be omitted.  Examples are legion and so blatant it seems unnecessary to define certain forms as a complement and Henry Fowler took the view that some verbs are by their very nature incomplete and were the definition of what is a complement thus limited, it would be “a serviceable rule, especially if it were established as the only one.”  It’s not however the only one and the flavour which most pleases the pedants is the narrowest and most technical in which complement is applied only to the noun or adjective predicated by means of a conjunctive verb “(be, become etc) or of a factitive verb (make, call, think etc) of the subject (He is a fool; He grew wiser; He was made king) or of the object (Call no man happy); in such example as the last, the complement is called an objective or an oblique complement.  A sense frequent in Latin grammars.”

So, in formal grammar, a “complement” is a word, phrase or clause which is necessary to complete the meaning of a given expression.  What complements do is lend additional information about the subject or object in a sentence, often completing the thought or idea that the verb begins.  Complements are important (and often essential) essential because they complete the meaning of the predicate in a sentence, ensuring a sentence expresses a complete thought and in structural linguistics, they’re categorized thus:

(1) Subject Complements: These follow a linking verb (such as “be’ or “seem”) and provide information about the subject. They can be: (1a) predicate nominatives which are nouns or pronouns that rename or identify the subject (in “she is an actor”, “actor” is the predicate nominative that complements the subject “she”) or (1b) predicate adjectives which are adjectives that describe the subject (in “the sky is blue”, “blue” is the predicate adjective that complements the subject “the sky”).

(2) Object Complements: These follow and modify or refer to the direct object. They can be: (2a) noun phrases such as “We elected him president” (“president” the noun phrase that complements the direct object “him”) or adjective phrases such as “She dyed her hair blonde” (“blonde the adjective phrase that complements the direct object “he hair”).

(3) Adjective Complements: These provide additional information about an adjective, often introduced by prepositions such as “of”, “to”, “for”, or “that” such as in the phrase “I am happy that you came” (“that you came” is an adjective complement adding information about “happy”).

(4) Verb Complements: These can be objects or other structures that complete the meaning of a verb.  In "she wishes to leave", “to leave” is a verb complement providing more information about what "she wishes”.