complimentary

Etymology

It is formed from English compliment + -ary.^[2][3][4] Compliment is from French compliment, from Italian complimento (“expression of respect and civility”), from a Romance variant of Latin complēmentum (“that which fills up or completes”),^[5][6][3] from compleō (“to fill up, complete”).^[3] It is the same word as complement.^[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Expressing or conveying a compliment.^[2][3] The dates differ: Etymonline and Dictionary.com put the word in the 1620s,^[3][4] and the OED's 1989 edition had quotations from 1628,^[7] but the current OED starts the sense in 1715,^[2] the Shorter Oxford in the early 18th century,^[6] and Merriam-Webster in 1714.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Used of people, given to paying compliments, the word is recorded from 1880, in Ouida.^[2] The sense "given free of charge", as a courtesy, appears in 1826, in the Morning Post,^[2] and Etymonline calls it a looser later use.^[3] Etymonline connects it with compliment in the sense of a gift or favour bestowed as a courtesy; the verb had the matching sense, to show regard by a gift or favour, by the 1690s.^[3]

Timeline

• 1620s – expressing or conveying a compliment.^[3][4] The current OED's first quotation for this sense is from 1715.^[2]
• 1826 – given free of charge.^[2]
• 1880 – of persons, paying compliments.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Expressing praise or admiration; flattering: The critics were complimentary about her first novel.^[9][8][2]
2. Given free, as a courtesy or for publicity: two complimentary tickets to the opening night.^[9][8][2]
3. Of the nature of a compliment.^[8][2]

Word family

• complimentarily
• complimentariness

Related words

• compliment
• complement
• complementary
• complete
• comply

Usage notes

Complimentary and its homophone complementary, completing or making up a whole, are often confused.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins