accost means address; greeting. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
accost is pronounced /əˈkɔst/.
Why “accost” is a great word
ACCOST — [Verb] To approach and speak to someone boldly or aggressively, often in a challenging or confrontational manner. From Middle French accoster, from Old French acoster (“to stand beside”), from a- (ad-, “to”) + coste (“side, flank”), ultimately from Latin costa (“rib, side”). First recorded in English 1570–80. Unlike “approach,” a neutral drawing near, or “greet,” a polite salutation, to accost is to weaponize proximity. It is the stranger’s hand on your elbow in a crowded street, the pamphleteer who plants himself in your path, the sudden, hissed demand that transforms public space into a private tribunal—each a violation of the unspoken covenant that strangers may pass in peace.
Etymology
From Middle French accoster, acoster, from Old French acoster (“to stand beside”) (whence Medieval Latin accostare), from Old French a- + coste (“side, flank”).
noun
- Address; greeting.“A man does not seize a woman by the sleeve and ask, "Is it you?" without some reason for an address so destitute of ordinary courtesy; and Lucilla was sufficiently versed in such matters to know that so rude and startling an accost could be only addressed to some one whose presence set the speaker's heart beating, and quickened the blood in his veins.”
- An attack.“At last, when I was already within reach of her, I stopped. Words were denied me; if I advanced I could but clasp her to my heart in silence; and all that was sane in me, all that was still unconquered, revolted against the thought of such an accost.”
verb
- To approach and speak to boldly or aggressively, as with a demand or request.“A beggar accosted me as soon as I stepped outside.”
- To join side to side; to border.
- To sail along the coast or side of.
- To approach; to come up to.“You mistake, knight. ‘Accost’ is front / her, board her, woo her, assail her.”
- To speak to first; to address; to greet.“Him, Satan thus accosts.”
- To adjoin; to lie alongside.“For all the Shores, which to the Sea accost”