From Latin 'ad collum' (to the neck) — originally the embrace that conferred knighthood, now any high praise.
An award or privilege granted as a special honor or acknowledgment of merit; originally, the ceremony of conferring knighthood.
From French 'accolade' (an embrace, the ceremony of knighting), from Italian 'accollata' (an embrace around the neck), from Vulgar Latin *accollāre (to embrace around the neck), from Latin 'ad-' (to) + 'collum' (neck), from PIE *kʷel- (to turn, to revolve), reflecting the neck as the part of the body that turns. The original accolade was a literal embrace — the king placed his arms around the new knight's neck, later replaced by a tap on the shoulder with a sword blade. The semantic journey from 'neck-embrace' to 'praise' preserves the memory
The accolade evolved from an embrace around the neck to a kiss on the cheek to a light blow (later a sword tap on the shoulder) — each century making the ceremony more formal and less intimate. The word preserves the original neck-embrace even though the practice abandoned it centuries ago.