accismus

Unadapted borrowing from Latin accismus, from Ancient Greek ακκισμός (akkismós, “prudery”).

• IPA^(key): /ækˈsɪzməs/

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• Hyphenation: ac‧cis‧mus

accismus (uncountable)

1. (rhetoric) The feigning of disinterest in something while actually desiring it.
   • 1866, Jean Paul, Levana: Or, The Doctrine of Education, page 194:

     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.

   • 1888 March 8, The Nation, number 1184, page 188:

     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.

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