accessory

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English accessorie,^[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman accessorie, also accessoire, and partly borrowed from Medieval Latin accessōrius (“secondary, subordinate”) and its noun accessōrium (“subordinate matter; adjunct”).^[4][2][5] In Anglo-Norman the noun meant a person who is an accessory to an offence from the 13th century, and a subsidiary matter or material from the 14th.^[4] The Medieval Latin adjective is formed from the past participial stem of accēdō (“to approach”) with the suffix -ōrius,^[4][2][6] and for the sense of a person the OED compares accessor (“helper, accomplice”).^[4][3] Etymonline derives it through accessor, an agent noun of the same verb,^[7] which is formed from ad- (“to”) and cēdō (“to go”).^[3][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

In law, a person who incites or helps another to commit a crime: 1414, in a petition in the Rolls of Parliament.^[4] Etymonline dates the sense "that which is subordinate to something else" and the legal sense both to the early 15th century,^[7] and the OED has a subordinate thing or adjunct from 1429.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The thing sense, an adjunct or accompaniment, came to mean especially a minor fitting or attachment, as of a car or appliance.^[4][8] In the visual arts it was used from the 1540s of an object added to balance a composition.^[7] The fashion sense, a small item such as a handbag, scarf or piece of jewellery worn to complement an outfit, is recorded from 1828 in the OED;^[4] Etymonline dates it from 1896 and derives accessorize from it.^[7] The adjective, supplementary or subsidiary, appears in 1563, and of a person helping in a harmful act in 1567.^[4][2] In 1579 the law distinguished an accessory before the fact, who incites or helps without being present, from an accessory after the fact, who helps the offender escape.^[4] Johnson (1755) defined the adjective as "joined to another thing, so as to increase it".^[9]

Timeline

• 1414 – a person who incites or helps someone to commit a crime.^[4]
• 1429 – a subordinate or additional thing, an adjunct.^[4]
• 1540s – in the visual arts, an object added to a composition.^[7]
• 1563 – adjective, contributing in a minor way, supplementary.^[4][2]
• 1567 – adjective, of a person, helping in a harmful act.^[4]
• 1579 – accessory before the fact and accessory after the fact.^[4]
• 1828 – a small item worn or carried to complement an outfit.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. An additional part or object that makes something more useful or attractive, as for a car or appliance: The camera comes with several accessories.^[8][4]
2. (often plural) A small item such as a handbag, scarf or piece of jewellery, worn or carried to complement an outfit.^[8][4]
3. (law) A person who incites or helps another to commit a crime, or who knowingly helps the offender afterwards; an accomplice.^[8][4]

Adjective

1. Supplementary or subsidiary; contributing in a secondary way: an accessory building.^[8][2][4]
2. (law) Helping in the commission of a crime.^[8][4]

Word family

• accessorial
• accessorily
• accessoriness
• accessorize
• nonaccessory
• accessory fruit
• accessory nerve
• accessory pigment

Related words

• access
• accede
• accessary
• accessible
• accession

Usage notes

Etymonline, quoting the Century Dictionary, notes that strictly the noun for a person should be accessary and the adjective, and the noun for a thing, accessory, but that the distinction is too fine to keep;^[7] Merriam-Webster gives accessary as a less common spelling.^[2] The first edition of the OED (1884) also recorded a pronunciation with the stress on the first syllable.^[4]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.