I learned about "kudos" through Boy Scouting. Lord Robert Baden-Powell (an Englishman who began Boy Scouting) was a world traveler and one of the things he returned with from Africa was a Kudo horn. (An animal's horn) that the natives used to make sounds upon the celebration/arrival etc of someone they held in high regards or for doing something outstanding. I've held an actual kudo horn from the animal, and blew it badly. My friend, a horn player, did marvelously with it.