accessary

English edit

accessary (plural accessaries)

(law) Someone who accedes to some act, now especially a crime; one who contributes as an assistant or instigator to the commission of an offense.

accessary after the fact (legal): one who, after an offense, assists or shelters the offender, not being present at the commission of the offense.
accessary before the fact (legal): one who commands or counsels an offense, not being present at its commission.
accessaryship

person

accessary (comparative more accessary, superlative most accessary)

(law) Accompanying as a subordinate; additional; accessory; especially, uniting in, or contributing to, a crime, but not as chief actor. See accessory.
- c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:
  To both their deaths thou shalt be accessary.
- 1641 May, John Milton, Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England: And the Cavvses that hitherto have Hindred it; republished as Will Taliaferro Hale, editor, Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England (Yale Studies in English; LIV), New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1916, →OCLC:
  Amongst many secondary and accessary causes that support monarchy, these are not of least reckoning.

"This word, as used in law, is spelt accessory by Blackstone and many others; but in this sense is spelt accessary by Bouvier, Burrill, Burns, Whishaw, Dane, and the Penny Cyclopedia; while in other senses it is spelt accessory. In recent text-books on criminal law the distinction is not preserved, the spelling being either accessary or accessory." - Webster, 1913. Since that time this trend has accelerated.