denotes a feigned refusal of something which a person earnestly desires. The word is Latin; or rather Greek, ἀκισμός; supposed to be formed from Acco, the name of a foolish old woman noted in antiquity for an affectation of this kind.

Accisimus 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 Accisimus.

ACCISIMUS is more particularly used, in rhetoric, as a species of irony.