Comp

How to spell comp

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce comp

What does comp mean?

1. nounA complimentary ticket, meal, or item given to someone at no charge.
2. verbTo give something to someone free of charge, especially as a courtesy.

Comp in a sentence

• noun

  The casino offered him a comp for a free night in the hotel.

• verb

  The manager agreed to comp our dessert after the long wait.

• noun

  Each reviewer received a comp to the opening performance.

• verb

  Hotels will often comp a room upgrade for loyal guests.

Where does comp come from?

Language of origin: Latin

"Comp" is a twentieth-century clipping, a short informal word created by lopping the front off one of several longer words that begin with the syllable comp-. Depending on the trade, it shortens "complimentary" (something given free), "competition" (a contest), "compensation" (payment), "comparable" (a comparable property, in real estate), or "accompaniment" (the backing a musician plays). All of those parent words trace back through Old French to Latin, where the prefix com- meant "together" or "with," so the buried sense of joining or matching runs quietly through the family. The clipped form rose in American show business and hospitality slang, where free tickets and free meals were routinely "comped" for favoured guests. Because it is a casual abbreviation rather than a formal coinage, its spelling is simply the first four letters of its parent and carries no hidden trap.

How the word is built

• clipped form of longer comp- words such as complimentary, competition, or compensation; comp- (from Latin com-, 'together, with')