Meaning
Praise, credit, or acclaim given for an achievement, as when a team earns recognition for a rescue plan. Though borrowed as a singular Greek noun, its final -s leads many English speakers to treat it as a plural ('many kudos') and even to coin a singular 'kudo'. Traditional style guides recommend the singular ('much kudos is due'), but the plural treatment is now widespread, especially in journalism. Now largely informal-to-neutral workplace and media praise; traditionally singular, very often treated as plural. Regional use: General English (borrowed from Greek).
Origin
From Greek kydos, a poetic word for 'glory, renown', especially glory won in battle, found mainly in Homer and literally meaning roughly 'that which is heard about' someone. Etymonline records the first English attestation in 1799, meaning 'fame, renown, glory', and suggests it began as university slang; Dictionary.com dates its broader arrival to 1825-35, noting 19th-century academic use and then 1920s newspaper headlines. The singular 'kudo' arose by back-formation by 1936, showing English reanalysing the Greek singular as a plural, a shift comparable to 'pea' from 'pease'.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- kudo
- kudoes
Usage Examples
- Kudos to the support team for resolving the outage before dawn.
- She earned considerable kudos within the department for mentoring the new analysts.
- He was gracious enough to share the kudos with his co-author.