accolade

English

Painting of an accolade (salutation marking the conferring of knighthood).

Etymology

• First attested in the 1620s.
• (award, praise): First attested in 1852.
• Borrowed from French accolade, from Occitan acolada (“an embrace”), from acolar (“to embrace”), from Italian accollato, from Vulgar Latin *accollō (“to hug around the neck”), from Latin ad- + collum (“neck”) (English collar).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, US) IPA^(key): /ˈæk.ə.ˌleɪd/, /ˌæk.ə.ˈlɑd/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Noun

accolade (plural accolades)

Accolade, early 16th century (France).

1. An expression of approval; praise.
2. A special acknowledgment; an award.

   This film is likely to pick up major accolades.

   • 2016 May 22, Phil McNulty, “Crystal Palace 1-2 Manchester United”, in BBC‎^[1]:

     Rooney led Manchester United up the Wembley steps to collect the FA Cup and add a missing medal to his collection - a richly deserved accolade.

3. An embrace of greeting or salutation.
4. (historical) A salutation marking the conferring of knighthood, consisting of an embrace or a kiss, and a slight blow on the shoulders with the flat of a sword.
5. (music) A brace used to join two or more staves.
6. (US) Written Presidential certificate recognizing service by military personnel or civilians serving the US armed forces who died or were wounded in action between 1917 and 1918, or who died in service between 1941 and 1947, or died of wounds received in Korea between June 27, 1950 and July 27, 1954.
7. (architecture) An ornament composed of two ogee curves meeting in the middle, each concave toward its outer extremity and convex toward the point at which it meets the other.
8. Synonym of curly bracket

Synonyms

• (expression of approval or praise): panegyric

Related terms

• collar

Translations

an expression of approval; praise

• Bulgarian: възхвала (bg) f (vǎzhvala)
• Catalan: elogi m
• Danish: akkolade c
• Galician: alaudo m, gabanza f, louvor m
• German: Anerkennung (de) f, Lob (de) n
• Italian: elogio (it) m
• Maori: whakamanahau
• Portuguese: elogio (pt) m, louvor (pt) m
• Russian: похвала́ (ru) f (poxvalá), панеги́рик (ru) m (panegírik)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: по̏хвала

  Roman: pȍhvala (sh) f

• Slovak: ovácie f
• Spanish: elogio (es) m, espaldarazo, loor (es) m

a special acknowledgment; an award

• Danish: akkolade c
• German: Auszeichnung (de) f
• Italian: riconoscimento (it) m
• Portuguese: reconhecimento (pt) m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: призна́ње n

  Roman: priznánje (sh) n

• Slovak: ocenenie n
• Spanish: galardón (es) f

a salutation marking the conferring of knighthood

• Catalan: bescollada (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 剑面击肩礼, 授予骑士称号

• Danish: akkolade c
• Dutch: accolade (nl) f, ridderslag (nl) m
• German: Ritterschlag (de) m, Akkolade (de) f
• Italian: ordinazione (it) f
• Portuguese: acolada f
• Russian: аккола́да (ru) f (akkoláda)
• Slovak: pasovanie
• Spanish: acolada (es) f, espaldarazo
• Ukrainian: акола́да (uk) f (akoláda)

(music) a brace used to join two or more staves

• Bulgarian: аколада (akolada)
• Danish: akkolade c
• Dutch: accolade (nl) f
• German: Akkolade (de) f
• Polish: akolada (pl) f
• Russian: аккола́да (ru) f (akkoláda)
• Ukrainian: акола́да (uk) f (akoláda)

(American military) written presidential certificate

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• German: ^{(please verify)} Akkolade (de)

References

• (4) https://web.archive.org/web/20060209015723/http://www.afms1.belvoir.army.mil/dictionary/a.htm#accolade

Verb

accolade (third-person singular simple present accolades, present participle accolading, simple past and past participle accoladed)

1. (transitive) To embrace or kiss in salutation.
2. (transitive, historical) To confer a knighthood on.
3. (transitive) To confer praise or awards on.

   an accoladed novel

Translations

To embrace or kiss

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 拥吻礼

To confer a knighthood on

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 授予骑士称号

To confer a praise or an award on

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 授奖于

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from French accolade.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɑkoːˈlaːdə/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: ac‧co‧la‧de

Noun

accolade f (plural accolades, diminutive accoladetje n)

1. (punctuations) brace, curly bracket ({ })
2. anything that resembles the above

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French acolade, from Old French acolee (remade with the suffix -ade), from the verb acoler.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.kɔ.lad/

• Audio (France, Paris)

  (file)

• Homophone: accolades
• Hyphenation: ac‧co‧lade

Noun

accolade f (plural accolades)

1. curly bracket (brace)
2. (historical) accolade (knights)
3. embrace

   Synonym: embrassade

Descendants

• → Danish: akkolade
• → German: Akkolade

Verb

accolade

1. inflection of accolader:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

• “accolade”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.