Kudos
« Kudos » est un mot très en vogue sur certains forums américains. Le contexte permet de deviner qu’il s’agit de félicitations. Sans avoir fait la moindre recherche (alors que j’ai des dictionnaires à ne pas savoir quoi en faire) j’étais persuadé depuis des années qu’il s’agissait d’un mot japonais.
Eh bien non.
D’après American Heritage Dictionary :
NOUN: Acclaim or praise for exceptional achievement.
USAGE NOTE: Kudos is one of those words like congeries that look like plurals but are etymologically singular. Acknowledging the Greek history of the term requires Kudos is (not are) due her for her brilliant work on the score. But kudos has often been treated as a plural, especially in the popular press, as in She received many kudos for her work. This plural use has given rise to the singular form kudo. These innovations follow the pattern whereby the English words pea and cherry were shortened from nouns ending in an (s) sound (English pease and French cerise), that were mistakenly thought to be plural. The singular kudo remains far less common than the plural use; both are often viewed as incorrect in more formal contexts.
•It is worth noting that even people who are careful to treat kudos only as a singular often pronounce it as if it were a plural. Etymology would require that the final consonant be pronounced as a voiceless (s), as we do in pathos, another word derived from Greek, rather than as a voiced (z).
Ce mot grec n’apparaît-il donc nulle part dans le vocabulaire français ?
En tout cas, en anglo-américain, ce mot-là vit, à en juger par les différences dans la note d’usage entre la version du site (citée ci-dessus) et la version du CD-ROM citée ci-dessous :
USAGE NOTE: Kudos is one of those words like congeries that look like plurals but are etymologically singular: correctness requires Kudos is (not are) due her for her brilliant work on the score.
Some writers have tried to defend the use of kudos with a plural verb, or even the introduction of a new singular form of kudo, on the grounds that these innovations follow the pattern whereby the English words pea and cherry were re-formed from nouns ending in -s that were thought to be plural. Perhaps the singular kudo would have to be acknowledged as a legitimate formation if it came to be widely adopted in the popular language in the way that cherry and pea have.
But at present kudos is still regarded as a slightly pretentious variant for praise and can scarcely claim to be part of the linguistic folkways of the community. When writers reach for an unfamiliar Greek word for the sake of elegance, it is fair to ask that they get it right. Still, it is worth noting that even people who are careful to treat the word syntactically as a singular often pronounce it as if it were a plural: etymology would require that the final consonant be pronounced as a voiceless (s), rather than as a voiced (z).