accursed

Etymology

It is formed from English accurse + -ed,^[2] in Middle English acursed, the past participle of acursen (“to excommunicate, to curse formally”).^[3][4][5][6] This verb is usually explained as an intensive prefix, Old English ā-, with cursian (“to curse”), from curs (“a curse”), the source of curse.^[4][3][7] Collins and Dictionary.com go straight back to ācursod, from ācursian;^[8][9] the OED also allows an unattested *oncursian.^[2] The -c-, which dates from the 15th century, is a mistaken Latinism imitating other words with that spelling,^[3] and Weekley compares acknowledge.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lying under a curse, doomed: about 1225, in St Juliana,^[2] and in the early 13th century in Etymonline.^[3] The verb is recorded from late Old English, in the Salisbury Psalter, according to the OED;^[2] Etymonline dates it to the late 12th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The verb had a formal, ecclesiastical force at first: to excommunicate, or to pronounce a solemn curse on someone, as in the Lambeth Homilies, of the priest who has excommunicated a person.^[6][3] Chaucer used it ten times, six of them as acursed.^[11] The noun use for accursed people is recorded from 1340, in the Ayenbite.^[2] The weaker sense "deserving a curse, detestable" is found from about 1400, in Piers Plowman, according to the OED;^[2] Etymonline dates it to the 1590s.^[3] Johnson (1755) set out the same two senses: doomed to misery, and hateful or wicked.^[12]

Timeline

• c. 1225 – lying under a curse, doomed.^[2][3]
• 1340 – noun, an accursed person, or accursed people collectively.^[2]
• c. 1400 – deserving a curse, detestable.^[2] Etymonline has the 1590s.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Under a curse; doomed: the accursed house at the end of the lane.^[8][5][2]
2. Hateful or detestable: That accursed alarm woke me again.^[8][5][2]

Noun

1. An accursed person; usually the accursed, accursed people as a group.^[2]

Word family

• accursedly
• accursedness

Related words

• accurse
• curse

Usage notes

It may also be spelled accurst.^[3][8][5] Merriam-Webster notes that the three-syllable pronunciation is usual when a stressed syllable follows without a pause.^[5] In the sense "hateful", Collins records it only before a noun.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
7. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.