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accolade

Etymology and origin of the English word accolade

History

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈæk.əˌleɪd/, /ˌæk.əˈlɑd/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French accolade (“an embrace”),[2][3][4] from French accoler (“to embrace”),[5][2] from Old French acoler (“to embrace round the neck”),[3][2] from Vulgar Latin *accollāre,[5][3][4] from Latin ad- (“to”) + collum (“neck”).[2][5][3][4] The French noun was earlier acolée; in the 16th century it was refashioned with the suffix -ade, and English followed.[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The ceremony that made a man a knight, originally an embrace about the neck and later a tap of the sword on the shoulder (1623).[3][2][4][6]

Semantic evolution

English had an earlier form accoll (mid-14th century), taken from Old French acolee, the embrace given to a newly made knight.[4] Because an embrace was part of dubbing a knight, the word came to stand for the whole ceremony,[2] and from the honour of knighthood it widened to any mark of approval or praise, by 1851–1852.[4][6][3] In music it also names the brace that joins several staves (1882).[6][5]

Timeline

  • mid-14th century – earlier form accoll, an embrace.[4]
  • 1623 – the ceremony of conferring knighthood.[2][3][5][6]
  • 1851–1852 – praise; an award or mark of approval.[4][6][1]
  • 1882 – a brace joining two or more musical staves.[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. An expression of praise or approval.
  2. An award or special honour.
  3. A ceremonial embrace of greeting.
  4. The ceremony, or the touch of the sword, by which knighthood is conferred.
  5. (music) A brace connecting two or more staves.

Verb

  1. To praise or honour.

Word family

  • accoladed
  • collar

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Accolade.” Etymologically, 9 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/accolade. Accessed 9 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on .