accessory

• accessary

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /əkˈsɛs(ə)ɹi/, /ækˈsɛs(ə)ɹi/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

  • (proscribed^[1]) IPA^(key): /əˈsɛs(ə)ɹi/
• (Indic) IPA^(key): /ˈaksəs(ɵ)ri/, /əkˈsɛsɵri/
• Homophone: accessary

From Medieval Latin accessōrius, from Latin accessor (“helper, subordinate”), from accessus.^[2] Compare access, from same root.

accessory (comparative more accessory, superlative most accessory)

1. Having a secondary, supplementary or subordinate function by accompanying as a subordinate; aiding in a secondary way; being additional; contributing or being contributory. [from 1550s]^[2]

   accessory garments

   Surprise parties succeed with the help of accessory neighbors or colleagues.

   • 1641 May, John Milton, “The Second Book”, in Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England: And the Causes that hitherto have Hindred it. […], [London]: […] Thomas Vnderhill, →OCLC; republished in Will Taliaferro Hale, editor, Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England (Yale Studies in English; LIV), New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1916, →OCLC, page 48:

     Amongst many secondary, and accessory causes that support Monarchy, these are not of least reckning, […]

2. (law) Assisting a crime without actually participating in committing the crime itself; being connected as an incident or subordinate to a principal.

   Hypernym: accomplice

   Coordinate term: principal

   Her actions were clearly accessory because they helped him commit and probably also conceal the crime.

3. Present in a minor amount, and not essential.

   accessory mineral

4. (medicine, biology) Supernumerary and generally nonfunctional.

   She had an accessory finger on one hand.

   • 1895, Sir John Bland-Sutton, Evolution and disease, page 113:

     Dichotomy may, not infrequently, affect other digits; thus in fig. 61 a chick is represented with two bifid toes and partial duplicity of the left leg. Birds with these accessory parts may live and attain the adult condition.

   • 1958, Acta Pædiatrica:

     There was an accessory finger present on the ulnar side of each hand.

   • 2010 March 10, Michael Benson, John Fixsen, Malcolm Macnicol, Klausdieter Parsch, Children’s Orthopaedics and Fractures, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 537:

     Duplications and accessory toes can sometimes be simply reduced or removed, but occasionally the skeletal architecture is very complex and careful planning and meticulous surgery are necessary.

• (secondary, supplementary): 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).

• (having a secondary function): accompanying, contributory, auxiliary, subsidiary, subservient, additional, acceding

From Middle English accessorie, from Medieval Latin accessōrius, from Latin accessor (“helper, subordinate”), from accessus.^[3][4][5] Compare access, from same root.

accessory (plural accessories)

1. 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

2. (fashion) An article that completes one's basic outfit, such as a scarf or gloves. [from 1896]^[3]
   • 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.

3. (law) A person who is not present at a crime, but contributes to it as an assistant or instigator. [from 1414]^[5]

   She was an accessory to the murder because she helped him commit and probably also conceal the crime.

   • 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.”

4. (art) Something in a work of art without being indispensably necessary, for example solely ornamental parts.

• (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

• → Hebrew: אַקְסֵסוֹרִי (aksésori)
• → Japanese: アクセサリー (akusesarī)
• → Korean: 액세서리 (aekseseori)

• “accessory”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.