accessory
EnglishEdit
Alternative formsEdit
- (noun): accessary
PronunciationEdit
- (General American) IPA(key): /əkˈsɛsəɹi/, /ækˈsɛsəɹi/
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /əkˈsɛs(ə)ɹi/, /ækˈsɛs(ə)ɹi/
Audio (US) (file) - Homophone: accessary
Etymology 1Edit
First attested in 1550s. From Middle English accessorie, from Medieval Latin accessōrius, from Latin accessor (“helper, subordinate”), from accessus. Compare access, from same root.
AdjectiveEdit
accessory (comparative more accessory, superlative most accessory)
- Having a secondary, supplementary or subordinate function by accompanying as a subordinate; aiding in a secondary way; being additional; contributing or being contributory. Said of things and actions, very rarely of people (and then usually in a humorous version of the legal sense [or due to confusion between the noun and the adjective]).
- accessory garments
- Surprise parties succeed with the help of accessory neighbors or colleagues.
- (law) Assisting a crime without actually participating in committing the crime itself; being connected as an incident or subordinate to a principal.
- Her actions were clearly accessory because they helped him commit and probably also conceal the crime.
- Coordinate term: principal
- Hypernym: accomplice
- Present in a minor amount, and not essential.
- accessory mineral
SynonymsEdit
- (having a secondary function): accompanying, contributory, auxiliary, subsidiary, subservient, additional, acceding
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
having a supplementary function
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assisting a crime
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present in a minor amount
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Etymology 2Edit
- (legal): First attested in 1414.
- (fashion): First attested in 1896.
NounEdit
accessory (plural accessories)
- Something that belongs to part of another main thing; something additional and subordinate, an attachment.
- the accessories of a mobile phone
- 1851, Thomas Carlyle, The Life of John Sterling, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC:
- the aspect and accessories of a den of banditti
- (fashion) An article that completes one's basic outfit, such as a scarf or gloves.
- 2018 June 5, Jonah Engel Bromwich; Vanessa Friedman; Matthew Schneier, “Kate Spade, whose handbags carried women into adulthood, is dead at 55”, in The New York Times[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 6 June 2018:
- One of the first of a wave of American women contemporary designers who emerged in the 1990s, she [Kate Spade] built a brand on the appeal of clothes and accessories that made shoppers smile.
- (law) A person who is not present at a crime, but contributes to it as an assistant or instigator.
- 2005, Jennifer Worth, Shadows of the Workhouse, Weidenfeld & Nicholson (2009), page 150:
- “You can be an accessory before the fact, or an accessory after the fact. It doesnʼt matter if itʼs before or after; either way youʼd be in for it.”
- She was an accessory to the murder because she helped him commit and probably also conceal the crime.
- (art) Something in a work of art without being indispensably necessary, for example solely ornamental parts.
SynonymsEdit
- (something that belongs to part of another main thing): accompaniment, addition, attachment, supplement; See also Thesaurus:adjunct
- (one who assists in or instigates an offense): abettor, accomplice, ally, coadjutor, accessary
Derived termsEdit
DescendantsEdit
- → Hebrew: אַקְסֵסוֹרִי (aksésori)
- → Japanese: アクセサリー (akusesarī)
- → Korean: 액세서리 (aekseseori)
TranslationsEdit
that which belongs to something else deemed the principal, attachment
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clothing accessory
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contributor to an offense
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unessential part in a work of art
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- 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
ReferencesEdit
- accessory in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913