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Look up accismus in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Accismus is a feigned refusal of something earnestly desired.[1][2][3]
The 1823 Encyclopædia Britannica writes that accismus may sometimes be considered as a virtue or sometimes a vice.[1]
The Latin term comes from the Greek word is "ἀκκισμός", which, according to Britannica, was "supposed to be formed from Acco (Greek: Ἀκκώ), the name of a foolish old woman, famous in antiquity for an affectation of this kind."[1] (An 1806 Lexicon manuale Graeco-Latinum et Latino-Graecum agrees with this derivation.[4] However an 1820 Lexicon Graeco-Latinum associates Acco with idle occupation, e.g., chatting with other women or looking into a mirror, hence the Greek coinages ἀκκίζομαι and ἀκκισμός).[5]
Ἀκκώ - mulier quaedam notae stultitiae, quae solita sit ad speculum cum imagine sua, perinde atque cum alia muliere, confabulari; ut hinc vulgo, quae stultius aut ineptius aliquid agerent, Ἀκκίζειν dicerentur, et Ἀκκοῦς nomine compellarentur. Illud etiam moribus hujus mulieris adfuit, ut recusaret quae tamen cupiebat.
Ἀκκίζομαι - simulate recuso, ficte aspernor, fingo me nolle quum maxime velim. Est etiam generaliter, simulatione utor, idem quod προσποιοῦμαι ... Saepe de mulieribus dicitur et scortis, quae ut pluris addicant, morosiora se praestant, nec facile se exorari sinunt.
Ἀκκισμός - ficta recusatio, simulatio qua quis utitur fingens se accipere nolle quod tamen vult.
12"Accismus", in Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia Of Literature
