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OP
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I just visited John Langdon's website, of ambigrams fame, since I had seen them mentioned in a few posts here and there on the Board. While I thoroughly enjoy the notion of ambigrams, and admire the work that John has done, I have one, pernickety, pedantic, nit-picking niggle. On the 'philosophy' page, yin and yang are, more than once, referred to as 'complimentary'.
I have spent years correcting letters and booklets in which the word complimentary is used when complementary was meant. Having seen this on John's site as well, I have to ask myself (or any here who might have the answer): has this imprecision proceeded so far as to now be an acceptable part of English, and not one that we should be fighting about any more? Is it no longer a grammatical solecism to talk of two partners complimenting each other, even though they weren't praising each other?
cheer
the sunshine warrior
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I'm with you on this one, shanks, and so is the Usage Panel for the fourth edition of the American Heritage dictionary (2000):
Complement and compliment, though quite distinct in meaning, are sometimes confused because they are pronounced the same. As a noun, complement means “something that completes or brings to perfection” (The antique silver was a complement to the beautifully set table); used as a verb it means “to serve as a complement to.” The noun compliment means “an expression or act of courtesy or praise” (They gave us a compliment on our beautifully set table), while the verb means “to pay a compliment to.”
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OP
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Goody. I am not alone!
In addition, complimentary is often used to refer to something that is free (gratis?). I wonder where that usage came from.
cheer
the sunshine warrior
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Is it no longer a grammatical solecism to talk of two partners complimenting each other, even though they weren't praising each other?
I sincerely hope that it is still a solecism.
I also wish that people would sort out the difference between "lose" and "loose." It happens frequently that I receive letters, messages and essays where the writers "loose" their way.
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Agree about 'loose' and 'lose'. Do you have any other favourite gripes? I'll try to think of mine and list them.
cheer
the sunshine warrior
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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"Free gift with the compliments of the management"
(As a complementary activity to the close of a deal?)
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Goody. I am not alone!
Most definitely not! When reading your post, I remembered an "amnemonic" I used as a child to help me keep "complement" and "compliment" separate in my mind. A "comple-ment" can make something or someone "comple-te" As awful as that is, it worked for me! I won't even start on the whole "loose/lose" thing - hair-pulling is no fun! Then there is the wildly erratic and yet profligate use of the apostrophe, "you're/your" being particularly noxious. Still, when it comes to declining syandards of literacy, I guess that it's just a case of Kay Sara Sara, whoever she is.
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declining syandards of literacyThought I'd got the copyright on spilling, Max
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In reply to:
Is it no longer a grammatical solecism to talk of two partners complimenting each other, even though they weren't praising each other?
It never was a grammatical solecism. An error in choice of words, definitely, but there's nothing grammatically wrong.
Bingley
Bingley
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>An error in choice of words, definitely, but there's nothing grammatically wrong.
semantics, as opposed to syntax...
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