accord

English

Etymology

From Middle English accorden, acorden, borrowed from Old French acorder (compare modern French accord and accorder), from Vulgar Latin *accordāre, from Latin concordāre via suffix substitution (with Latin ad-), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱḗr ~ *ḱr̥d-, and thus distantly related to English heart (via Proto-Germanic *hertô).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /əˈkɔːd/
• (US) IPA^(key): /əˈkɔɹd/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)d

Noun

accord (countable and uncountable, plural accords)

1. Agreement or concurrence of opinion, will, or action.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Acts 1:14:

     These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Iesus, and with his brethen.

   • 1622, Francis, Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban [i.e. Francis Bacon], The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh, , London: W Stansby for Matthew Lownes, and William Barret, →OCLC:

     a mediator of an accord and peace between them

2. A harmony in sound, pitch and tone; concord.
   • 17th century, Sir John Davies, The Self-Subsistence of the Soul:

     Those sweet accords are even the angels' lays.

3. Agreement or harmony of things in general.

   the accord of light and shade in painting

4. (countable, perfumery) A distinctive mixture of fragrances or the odor thereof.
   • 2010 November 18, Daphna Havkin-Frenkel, Faith C. Belanger, Handbook of Vanilla Science and Technology, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN:

     Oriental fragrances often incorporate an accord referred to as amber. It is a perfumery accord using vanilla, olibanum, balsamic resins, and citrus to varying degrees.

   • 2016 October 15, Valerie Ann Worwood, The Complete Book of Essential Oils and Aromatherapy, Revised and Expanded: Over 800 Natural, Nontoxic, and Fragrant Recipes to Create Health, Beauty, and Safe Home and Work Environments, New World Library, →ISBN, page 450:

     Accord is the perfumer's word for a perfume formulation that can be incorporated into any perfume calling for a particular note.

5. (law) An agreement between parties in controversy, by which satisfaction for an injury is stipulated, and which, when executed, prevents a lawsuit.
   • 1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC:

     Accord is a satisfaction agreed upon between the party injuring and the party injured ; which , when performed , is a bar of all actions upon this account

6. (international law) An international agreement.

   The Geneva Accord of 1954 ended the French-Indochinese War.

7. Voluntary or spontaneous impulse to act.

   Nobody told me to do it. I did it of my own accord.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Leviticus 25:5:

     That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap.

Synonyms

• (concurrence of opinion): consent, assent
• (international agreement): treaty

Derived terms

• bon-accord
• in accord
• of one's own accord
• with one accord

Related terms

• chord

Translations

Verb

accord (third-person singular simple present accords, present participle according, simple past and past participle accorded)

1. (transitive) To make to agree or correspond; to suit one thing to another; to adjust.
   • 1590, Philip Sidney, The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia, page 150:

     [H]er hands accorded the Lutes musicke to the voice;

2. (transitive) To bring (people) to an agreement; to reconcile, settle, adjust or harmonize.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     But Satyrane forth stepping, did them stay / And with faire treatie pacifide their ire, / Then when they were accorded from the fray […]

   • 1660, Robert South, The Scribe instructed, &c.:

     all which particulars, being confessedly knotty and difficult, can never be accorded but by a competent stock of critical learning

3. (intransitive) To agree or correspond; to be in harmony; to be concordant.
   • 1593, William Shakespeare, The Second Part of King Henry the Sixth, III-i:

     For things are often spoke and seldom meant; / But that my heart accordeth with my tongue,—

   • 1671, John Milton, “The Third Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: J. M for John Starkey , →OCLC, page 54, lines 9–11:

     Thy actions to thy words accord, thy words / To thy large heart give utterance due, thy heart / Conteins of good, wiſe, juſt, the perfect ſhape.

   • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, , →OCLC, Prologue:

     Let knowledge grow from more to more,
     ⁠But more of reverence in us dwell;
     ⁠That mind and soul, according well,
     May make one music as before,
     But vaster. […]

   • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter II, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers, […]. Even such a boat as the Mount Vernon offered a total deck space so cramped as to leave secrecy or privacy well out of the question, even had the motley and democratic assemblage of passengers been disposed to accord either.

4. (intransitive) To agree in pitch and tone.
5. (transitive, law) To grant as suitable or proper; to concede or award.
   • 1817 December, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “The Revolt of Islam. ”, in [Mary] Shelley, editor, The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley. , volume I, London: Edward Moxon , published 1839, →OCLC, page 217:

     And, when the blinding tears had fallen, I saw
     That column, and those corpses, and the moon,
     And felt the poisonous tooth of hunger gnaw
     My vitals, I rejoiced, as if the boon
     Of senseless death would be accorded soon;— […]

   • 1951, United Nations, Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, article 14:

     In respect of the protection of industrial property, […] a refugee shall be accorded in the country in which he has his habitual residence the same protection as is accorded to nationals of that country.

   • 2010 December 16, European Court of Human Rights, A, B and C v. Ireland‎, number 25579/05, marginal 235:

     In the present case, and contrary to the Government’s submission, the Court considers that there is indeed a consensus amongst a substantial majority of the Contracting States of the Council of Europe towards allowing abortion on broader grounds than accorded under Irish law.

6. (intransitive, obsolete) To give consent.
7. (intransitive, archaic) To arrive at an agreement.

Derived terms

Translations

Anagrams

• Cradoc

French

Etymology

Deverbal from accorder. Compare with Catalan acord.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.kɔʁ/

• audio

  (file)

Noun

accord m (plural accords)

1. chord
2. agreement
3. permission, consent

Derived terms

• accord parfait
• accorder
• d’accord
• d’un commun accord
• désaccord

Descendants

• → Danish: akkord
• → German: Akkord
• → Norwegian Bokmål: akkord
• → Norwegian Nynorsk: akkord
• → Ottoman Turkish: اقورد (akord)
  • Turkish: akor, akort
• → Swedish: ackord

Further reading

• “accord”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

Anagrams

• cocard

Norman

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

accord m (plural accords)

1. (Jersey) agreement