Rhet. [med. or mod. L., a. Gr. ἀκκισμός coyness, affectation.] A feigned refusal of that which is earnestly desired.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v., Cromwell’s refusal of the crown … may be brought as an instance of an Accismus.
1876. trans. Richter’s Levana, IV. iv. 89. 243. A woman uses no figure of eloquence—her own, at most, excepted—so often as that of accismus.
