Accolade

noun

• A mark or expression of praise, congratulation, or appreciation for excellency

• A ceremonial rite (such as a tap on the shoulder with a sword) granting knighthood

• (Antiquated) A symbol in musical notation (similar to "{" ) that denotes two or more lines as played simultaneously

---

Usage

We at WinEveryGame like to congratulate anyone who wins a word game, but one wordsmith who really earned a tip of our cap was David Wilson. A man of terrific character, acuity, and word-play-wisdom, David has earned our highest accolade: a host of grand-sounding titles that only lexicographers would come up with. Let's do them alphabetically: he's the Agha of Awesome, the… - wait, you mean you don't know who David Gibson is? Do you even word-game?

We're just kidding: even those of us who are pretty serious gamers might not know much about the North American Scrabble Championship (NASC), an annual tournament that, in 2016, was won by David Gibson. It takes a lot to win the NASC - 5 solid days of rigorous word-play against some of the top Scrabble players on the planet. Yes, this is a real thing, and winners like David earn every bit of the accolades they receive at the awards ceremony afterwards. Oh, and the $10,000 - hard to think of a better accolade than that.

Whether it's a shiny trophy, a laudatory speech, or $10,000, an accolade is definitely something you want. The thing is, you have to earn it. No matter what form it takes, an accolade is essentially an expression of commendation. It's given in recognition of something superlative you've done, like winning a marathon or raising enough funds to pay for a new community center. Accolades are often physical objects, but they can just as easily be actions, like a pat on the shoulder and a few words of admiration. Accolades are frequently given at ceremonies, but they can also be ceremonies that are conducted as a means of giving someone a special acknowledgement.

Actually, there's a specific type of ceremony that’s especially associated with the word accolade: the bestowing of knighthood. The most familiar version involves a royal figure bestowing the honor by tapping a worthy individual on each shoulder with the flat side of a sword. That ritual has been practiced in various forms in Europe for hundreds of years, and this meaning of accolade is just as timeworn. Nowadays, this meaning isn't used much; in modern speech, you're more likely to hear it used in its more general sense.

But before you start congratulating yourself for having finished reading this entry, we should let you know that accolade also has a specific, and somewhat uncommon, use in music. This meaning doesn't have anything to do with awards or appreciation, but instead refers to a parenthetical mark that spans multiple lines of music and signifies that they are to be played simultaneously. This might sound fancy and complicated, but it's really just the same curly bracket - the "{" - that's used in other disciplines like poetry and math (though music is the only area where it's called an accolade). This use of accolade, though, is also pretty old-fashioned, and in modern music the symbol is more commonly referred to as a brace. Personally, we feel this is a change for the boring, so we give accolades to everyone who tries to work this meaning into their own usage.

Example: A Nobel Prize, a Pulitzer, and a Teen Choice Award highlighted the poet's many accolades.

Example: The poet's hometown gave him his latest accolade when they named a new library after him.

Example: Last year, the poet was knighted at an accolade presided over by the Queen of England.

---

---

Bring out the linguist in you! What is your own interpretation of accolade. Did you use accolade in a game? Provide an example sentence or a literary quote.