ACCOLADE, a ceremony used in conferring knighthood; but whether it was an embrace (according to the use of the mod ern French word accolade), or a slight blow on neck or cheek, is not agreed. Gregory of Tours writes that the early kings of France kissed the knights on the left cheek; and William the Conqueror is said to have made use of the blow in conferring knighthood on his son Henry. At first it was given with the fist, but for this was substituted a gentle stroke with the flat of the sword on the side of the neck, or on either shoulder. In Great Britain the sover eign still employs this latter form. "Accolade" is also a technical term in music-printing for a sort of brace joining separate staves; and in architecture it denotes a form of decoration on doors and windows.