Definition of accolade

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< acclivity

Accolate >

ac·co·lade    (k-ld, -läd) KEY 

NOUN:

1. 1. An expression of approval; praise.
   2. A special acknowledgment; an award.
2. A ceremonial embrace, as of greeting or salutation.
3. Ceremonial bestowal of knighthood.

TRANSITIVE VERB:
ac·co·lad·ed, ac·co·lad·ing, ac·co·lades

To praise or honor: "His works are invariably accoladed as definitive even as they sparkle and spark" (Malcolm S. Forbes).

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ETYMOLOGY:
French, an embrace, accolade, from accoler, to embrace, from Old French acoler, from Vulgar Latin *accolre : Latin ad-, ad- + Latin collum, neck; see k^wel-¹ in Indo-European roots

WORD HISTORY:
People usually have to stick their necks out to earn accolades, and this is as it should be. In tracing accolade back to its Latin origins, we find that it was formed from the prefix ad-, "to, on," and the noun collum, "neck," which may bring the word collar to mind. From these elements came the Vulgar Latin word *accollre, which was the source of French accolade, "an embrace." An embrace was originally given to a knight when dubbing him, a fact that accounts for accolade having the technical sense "ceremonial bestowal of knighthood," the sense in which the word is first recorded in English in 1623.