Today's podictionary word is kudos . Kudos means praise.
While many, many English words are built on Greek roots, the word kudos is a direct borrowing from Greek and was used first in English in 1799 with a pointed acknowledgement that it was a Greek word being used in an English sentence.
Therefore it isn't given credit as actually being an English word until 32 years later in 1831. It is a Greek word that ends in s so it isn't plural, although sometimes people treat it as if it were and give a single kudo as if they were saving higher praise for greater achievement. The Oxford English Dictionary says this is an erroneous use but Merriam-Webster accepts the false-singular as a word as early as 1926. I did a search on the last decade of the New York Times and found hundreds of kudos but the 40 or so uses of kudo that came up seemed all to be people's names. This could mean that New York Times journalists are familiar with Greek, or that they aren't stingy with their praise. Early adopters did know their Greek and kudos is said first to have been slang at universities where Greek would have held a far more important position than it does today.
