/accost-meaning

/accost-meaning-etymology

-) Verb.

-) Pronunciation and accent: əkɒst.

-) Etymology: from French accoster, from Late Latin accostare “to be side to side”, from Latin ad- to + costa “rib, side”.

-) Preterite tense: accosted.

-) Preterite participle: accosted. Present participle: accosting.

-) Documented since 1500.

-) Intransitively: (it is obsolete) to sail along the coast or side of; to go or remain alongside of.

-) Transitively: -) 1. (It is archaic) to go close to.

-) Synonyms: approach. 

-) 2. To draw near to and speak to (someone).

-) Synonyms for “accost”: address, greet.

[A gentleman] who was accosted by the Dodger as Tom Chitling.  

Dickens… Oliver… 1838

Somebody had accosted him in the street, mistaking him for no less a personage than Doctor Dubble L. Dee, the lecturer upon quack physics.

Poe… Three Sundays… 1841

Had the lady been alone, I should undoubtedly have entered her box and accosted her at all hazards.

Poe… The Spectacles… 1844

In an instant afterward, this man came forth, accosted my companion by name, shook him cordially by the hand, and begged him to alight.

Poe… The System… 1845

One evening coming out of my hotel, an elderly man exceedingly well dressed, accosted me in Italian

Walter… My secret life… 1888

[A man] accosted us in Spanish.

The Knickerbocker, vol. 50

One morning, he and his sticks were sunning themselves in the porch at Ashlydyat, when a stranger approached and accosted him.

H. Wood… The Shadow… 1907

-) Particularly: to draw near to and speak to (someone), for prostitution.

-) Words derived from “accost”: accostable, accosting.

-) Words derived from Latin costa, see CUTLET.

 

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