WordWealth: kudos

ku·dos1 , n. (used with a sing. v.)

honor; glory; acclaim: He received kudos from everyone on his performance.

ku·dos2 , n.

pl. of kudo.

(Random House Webster's Unabridged). Look at Thesaurus

RFK's "idealism" may have been a Machiavellian ruse. What's more, it may have been responsible for driving away a white working class suspicious of following a political prophet from epiphany to epiphany. But every winning presidential candidate from Jimmy Carter onward, whether promising "morning in America" or a "kinder, gentler nation" or a "new covenant" has been as much a moralist as a manager. Today's voters think a personal trial by fire, like RFK's after his brother's assassination, lends moral kudos. "Part of his appeal," Steel says of RFK, "was that he seemed to be ... unhappy." That was true when he ran as a carpetbagging New York senatorial candidate in 1964 -- and it's true of the jilted First Lady who's running as a carpetbagger for the same seat in 2000. —— Christopher Caldwell; Politics & Prose; The Electorate Bobby Built; Article covers a new biography of Robert F. Kennedy; shows him to be authoritarian and unprincipled.; The Atlantic; Jan 26, 2000

It is rare that humanity fails to rise to a technological challenge, particularly when there is money to be made and kudos to be gained by doing environmental good. How much longer can it be before the makers of chewing gum harness their inventive powers towards clearing up the vast mess their products make? New measures to deal with the thousands of millions of rubbery splats are expected to be imposed on firms by the government; compulsory sponsorship of clean-up teams and contributions to the pavement-scrubbing machinery local councils must buy. But the grand historical figures of chewing (and bubble) gum history would find this very inadequate, palliative thinking. The challenge needs tackling before, not after, the lump of exhausted gunk has been dropped or spat. —— Leader; When the Bubble Burst; In search of Biodegradable Gum; Guardian; March 26, 2003

The sap of the tree must pass through the whole body of it, reach every branch and twig and leaf of it. It must grow, grow, grow, instead of [like a mismatched suit] being patched, patched, patched." I could see that Toch had been talking not only about the composition of a piece of music but also about the composition of a life -- and, for that matter, of a family line. And as the audience now rose in ovation, showering particular kudos on their beloved Poch, who stood there drained and pale, trembling in his triumph (for, as none of us realized at the time, he was already riddled with a cancer that would claim his life within a few months -- this would be almost his last tale too), I found myself realizing how for Ernst the spiritual challenge was the same in both instances. —— Lawrence Weschler; My Grandfather's Last Tale; The Atlantic; Dec 1996

The vast majority of men and women in politics today come from the county courthouses or the city ward organizations. Politics is their livelihood. It pays for their groceries. There is a smaller coterie of rich businessmen who want anything from merely kudos to an opportunity to make a fast buck through political influence. There are also the pressure group leaders—veterans, labor, organized minorities, and the like. Finally, there are the reformers, ranging from the practical to the starry-eyed, some rich, some poor, a few merely well-to-do, ridiculed by the others in private but recognized as supplying at least a veneer of respectability which helps put the ticket across. —— Joseph S. Clark, Jr.; Can the Liberals Rally?; The Atlantic; July 1953
 

—Usage. In the 19th century, KUDOS1 entered English as a singular noun, a transliteration of a Greek singular noun meaning "praise or renown." It was at first used largely in academic circles, but it gained wider currency in the 1920s in journalistic use, particularly in headlines: Playwright receives kudos. Kudos given to track record breakers. KUDOS is often used, as in these examples, in contexts that do not clearly indicate whether it is singular or plural; and because it ends in -s, the marker of regular plurals in English, KUDOS has come to be widely regarded and used as a plural noun meaning "accolades" rather than as a singular mass noun meaning "honor or glory."

     The singular form KUDO has been produced from KUDOS by back formation, the same process that gave us the singular pea from pease, originally both singular and plural, sherry from Xeres (an earlier spelling of the Spanish city Jerez), and cherry from the French singular noun cherise. This singular form has developed the meanings "honor" and "statement of praise, accolade."

     Both the singular form KUDO and KUDOS as a plural are today most common in journalistic writing. Some usage guides warn against using them.

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