Compliment

We call compliments those expressions of congratulations addressed to a person who has just accomplished something significant. For that reason, he or she is worthy of praise. The history of the word takes us back, once again, to Latin, with the verb complere, meaning “to fill” or “to make complete.” It therefore speaks of fullness. The term reached us through the Spanish cumplimentar, itself derived from the simpler cumplir, meaning “to accomplish” or “to carry out.” Every compliment is, consciously or not, a way of addressing a person’s story. The easiest example? Celebrating with the expression “happy birthday,” which in fact consists of marking a birthday with one eye on the past and the other on the future: one looking at what has been accomplished, the year just gone by, and the other wishing good things for the year to come. At the heart of our word are fused the meanings of fullness and praise, but also affection and closeness. These last two meanings come from the prefix. The first three letters are nothing other than the preposition “with,” slightly modified to adapt to the p of fullness, and they clearly affirm that every achievement, every task completed, every year brought to its conclusion is always made possible, at least in part, by the small or great contributions of others. It is truly the case that paying attention to words teaches us how to protect ourselves from unnecessary and unfounded pride.

Fabio Arduini
NP February 2026