ACCISMUS, denotes a feigned refusal of something which a person earnestly desires. The word is Latin; or rather Greek, Ακισμός; supposed to be formed from Ακοή, the name of a foolish old woman noted in antiquity for an affection of this kind.
Accismus is sometimes considered as a virtue; sometimes as a vice, which Augustus and Tiberius practised with great success. Cromwell's refusal of the crown of England, may be brought as an instance of an Accismus.
Accismus is more particularly used, in rhetoric, as a species of irony.