What is the origin of accolade?

Accolade was borrowed into English in the 16th century from French. The French noun in turn derives from the verb accoler, which means "to embrace," and ultimately from the Latin term collum, meaning "neck." (Collum is also an ancestor of the English word collar.) When it was first borrowed from French, accolade referred to a ceremonial embrace that once marked the conferring of knighthood. The term was later extended to any ceremony conferring knighthood (such as the more familiar tapping on the shoulders with the flat part of a sword's blade), and eventually extended to honors or awards in general.

Examples of accolade in a Sentence

There is no higher accolade at this school than an honorary degree. for their exceptional bravery the firefighters received accolades from both local and national officials

Recent Examples on the Web Examples of major milestones include: surpassing a sales goal, winning an industry accolade, securing an important partnership, announcing an expansion, etc. — TIME.com, "Terms and Conditions: TIME’s 2021 Best Inventions Search," 26 Apr. 2021 Late actress Cloris Leachman also won an honorary accolade for her animal activism over the years. — Joey Nolfi, EW.com, "Digital Mank monkeys, Pete Davidson's shirt win PETA 'Oscats' for animal kindness," 14 Apr. 2021 Evans is one of four finalists for that accolade, which will be announced Saturday, the same day as the Wade. — Hayes Gardner, The Courier-Journal, "The short list: Louisville's Dana Evans could be among shortest to win player of the year," 30 Mar. 2021 Herald Square has not been the World’s Largest Store since 2009, when Guinness World Records certified that the accolade belonged to the Shinsegae Centum City department store in Busan, South Korea. — Michael Lisicky, Forbes, "Does Macy’s Need To Be The World’s Largest Store?," 10 Apr. 2021 An article on Monday about new independent print media from the Lower East Side misstated an accolade of the playwright Jeremy O. Harris. — New York Times, "Corrections: March 10, 2021," 9 Mar. 2021 The evening's big award Outstanding Cast in a Motion Picture was a race between Da 5 Bloods, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Minari, One Night in Miami, and The Trial of the Chicago 7 to take the accolade. — Ruth Kinane, EW.com, "Screen Actors Guild Awards 2021: See the full list of winners," 4 Apr. 2021 They were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1995, and received the organization's top accolade, the Johnny Mercer Award, in 2014. — Paul Grein, Billboard, "Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff Among Speakers at Grammy Career Day 2021 Virtual Events: See the Full List," 30 Mar. 2021 Promising Young Woman received the accolade for Original Screenplay, while Borat Subsequent Moviefilm’s Sacha Baron Cohen and his many collaborators received the same for Adapted Screenplay. — Halle Kiefer, Vulture, "Promising Young Woman, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm Walk Away Winners From WGA Awards," 21 Mar. 2021

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'accolade.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.