[a. mod. Fr. accolade, ad. It. accollata, sb. f. pa. pple. of accollare to embrace about the neck; see ACCOLL, and -ADE. Introduced into Fr. in 16th c. superseding the OFr. cogn. acolée; it has similarly superseded the earlier ACOLEE in Eng.]
1. Properly, an embrace or clasping about the neck; technical name of the salutation marking the bestowal of knighthood, applied at different times to an embrace, a kiss, and a slap on the shoulders with the flat blade of a sword.
[Not in Cotgrave 1611 who has Accollade (Fr.) a colling, clipping, imbracing about the necke; Hence, the dubbing of a Knight, or the ceremony used therein.]
1623. Favine, Theat. Honour, I. vi. 51. Giuing him also the Accollade, that is to say, Kissing him.
1706. Phillips, Accollade, clipping and colling, embracing about the Neck.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v. Antiquaries are not agreed, wherein the Accolade properly consisted.
1817. Scott, Waverley, I. x. 131. The quantities of Scotch snuff which his accolade communicated.
1852. Miss Yonge, Cameos, I. xvi. 122 (1877). Henry conferred on him the accolade, or sword blow, which was the chief part of the ceremony.
1858. Wiseman, Last Four Popes, 511. Could he [the Pope] receive him [Czar Nicholas] with a bland smile and insincere accollade?
2. Music. A vertical line or brace, used to couple together two or more staves. (Sometimes confined to a straight thick line so used, as distinguished from a brace or double curve; but in mod. Fr. accollade = the brace or double curve, used not merely in music but in ordinary printing, algebra, classification, etc.)
1882. Rockstro, in Grove’s Dict. Mus., s.v. Score, In Scores … the Staves are united, at the beginning of every page, either by a Brace, or by a thick line, drawn, like a bar, across the whole, and called the Accolade.
