baisemains means respects; compliments. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
Why “baisemains” is a great word
BAISEMAINS — [Noun] Respects or compliments, historically expressed by kissing the hand as a gesture of homage or courtesy. Borrowed from French baisemains, from baiser ("to kiss") + mains ("hands"). Unlike "homage" (a formal public acknowledgment of fealty) or "compliments" (general expressions of polite regard), baisemains captures the specific, vanished choreography of feudal deference. It is the perfumed glove extended over a balustrade, the precise angle of a bowed head in a candlelit hall, the faint, dry sound of lips meeting not flesh but the air above a signet ring—a ceremony so elaborate it now survives only as the ghost of its own courtesy, a fossil of touch in the lexicon of politeness.
Etymology
Borrowed from French baisemains, from baiser (“to kiss”) + mains (“hands”).
noun
- respects; compliments