Meanings
- rhetoricuncountableThe feigning of disinterest in something while actually desiring it.
The keen eye of the ancient comedians detected this weakness in Athenian demagogues who declined office with a view to making their election surer, and Philippides gave it the name accismus.
1888 March 8, The Nation, number 1184, page 1881 more example
On this account, mothers, fathers, men, and even youths, are their best companions; on the contrary, girls connected with other girls of a similar age, as in schools, provoke one another to an exchange of foibles, rather than of excellences, to a love of dress, admiration, and gossip, even to the forgetting of accismus.
1866, Jean Paul, Levana: Or, The Doctrine of Education, page 194
Origin
- Ancient Greekἀκκισμός“prudery”
- Latinaccismus
- Englishaccismus
Unadapted borrowing from Latin accismus, from Ancient Greek ἀκκισμός (akkismós, “prudery”).
More words from Latin, Ancient Greek
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Dutch accismus
- accismusfeigning disinterest in something while actually desiring it.
French accisme
- accismefeigning disinterest in something while actually desiring it.
Portuguese acismo
- acismofeigning disinterest in something while actually desiring it.
Cite this entry
accismus. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/accismus
“accismus.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/accismus. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “accismus,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/accismus.
Source: accismus on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.