There have been a number of words so far that I have thought I knew, until I read the definition and discover that there are shades of meaning or more precise meanings of which I have been completely unaware. This is another.
accolade
1. a. Properly, an embrace or clasping about the neck; technical name of the salutation marking the bestowal of knighthood, applied at different times to an embrace, a kiss, and a slap on the shoulders with the flat blade of a sword.
[Not in COTGRAVE 1611 who has Accollade (Fr.) a colling, clipping, imbracing about the necke; Hence, the dubbing of a Knight, or the ceremony used therein.]
b. fig. A supreme honour; a mark of approval or admiration; a bestowal of praise, a plaudit; an acknowledgement of merit.
2. Music. A vertical line or brace, used to couple together two or more staves. (Sometimes confined to a straight thick line so used, as distinguished from a brace or double curve; but in mod.Fr. accollade = the brace or double curve , used not merely in music but in ordinary printing, algebra, classification, etc.)
Neh 