This week: Complement

Notice the “e”. 

Compliment and complement are two different words.

A compliment is a nice thing to say about someone. To compliment is to say that nice thing. Something that is complimentary is kind or it is free.

Complement is derived from “complete” – hence the “e”: That scarf complements your outfit. A full complement of soldiers.  Complementary colours add up to white (in RGB, anyway).

Awkward client moment:  When I was working on the account management side at an agency, I once had a client send me a list of edits to a piece that was being published the next day.  Among her edits was her desire to “correct” the spelling of the word “complement” to “compliment”.  We spent hours trying to figure out how to tell her that she was a dumb-ass without pissing her off.