accost

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French accoster (“to approach, draw near”), also acoster,^[2][3][4] from Old French acoster, recorded from 1155,^[2][5] which the OED and Wiktionary analyse as a- and coste (“rib, side, seashore”).^[2][1] Many dictionaries instead derive the French verb from Late Latin accostō (“to come up to the side”) or *accostō,^{[6][3][7][8][4]} from ad- (“to”) and costa (“rib, side”),^[6][4] whereas the OED thinks the Latin verb, recorded from the 13th century, may be modelled on the French one.^[2] Hoad, the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English take the French verb from Italian accostare,^[9][10][11] which the OED records only from the late 13th century.^[2] The American Heritage Dictionary refers the Latin noun to Proto-Indo-European *kost-.^[12] Early English use often associated the word with coast, as its spellings show.^[2][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

To approach and speak to someone: 1567, in G. Fenton's translation of Bandello,^[2][4] earlier than the 1570s of Etymonline and the 1578 of Barnhart.^[6][3]

Semantic evolution

In French the verb was mainly a seafaring word, for drawing near a place or sailing along a coast, but it was used of approaching people from the 12th century.^[2][5] English took it in several of these senses at once, and for about a century the word could mean to draw near (1571–1635), to go alongside (1579–1603) and to border on (1596–1864).^[2][10] All these faded, leaving the social sense.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as "to speak to first", with Shakespeare's "accost her, front her, board her, woo her, assail her",^[13] and Etymonline dates this as the usual sense to the 1610s.^[6] Later use tended towards bold, hostile or unwelcome approaches.^[2] The use for a prostitute's soliciting appears in 1806, according to the OED, or 1812, according to Etymonline, and the OED finds no French parallel until 1866.^[2][6]

Timeline

• 1567 – to approach and speak to.^[2][4]
• 1571 – to draw near (obsolete after 1635).^[2]
• 1579 – to travel alongside (obsolete after 1603).^[2]
• 1596 – to border on or flank, in Spenser (obsolete after 1864).^[2]
• 1597 – figurative, to come upon suddenly or violently; to assail.^[2]
• 1606 – noun, the act of accosting; a greeting.^[2][4]
• 1806 – of a prostitute, to solicit.^[2] Etymonline has 1812.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To approach and speak to someone, especially boldly or in a hostile or unwelcome way: Two strangers accosted her outside the station.^[7][4][2]
2. Of a prostitute, to solicit a customer.^[2][7]
3. To come upon someone suddenly or violently; to assail.^[2]
4. (obsolete, 1596–1864) To lie alongside or border on something.^[2][4][10]

Noun

1. (archaic) A greeting, or the act of accosting someone.^[4][7][2]

Word family

• accostable

Related words

• coast
• costal
• costa

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
6. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.