Webster's Online Dictionary
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Definition: ACCISMUS

Part of Speech Definition
Noun 1. Affected refusal; coyness.[Websters].

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

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Date "Accismus" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1914. (references)

Etymology:Accismus \Ac*cis"mus\, noun. [New Latin expression, from the Greek]. (references)


Extended Definition: ACCISMUS

Accismus

Accismus is a form of irony wherein a person pretends not to want an object they truly desire once presented with it. One of many figures of refutation [1], which is itself a figure of speech. In one version of Aesop's fable regarding the fox and the grapes, the fox pretends she did not want the grapes she had been trying to reach after she is unable to reach them. A more common example might be refusing the last helping of dessert, claiming "I couldn't possibly" when that is definitely not the case.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia; from the article "Accismus". Image Credit.
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Source: the editor, created by/for EVE to gauge likely levels of human interest in linguistically triggered topics (compiled across various sources, such as Wikipedia and specialty expression glosses).