What does accurst mean?
Accurst is an archaic adjective meaning cursed, damned, or worthy of condemnation. It is a contracted literary variant of the more familiar "accursed," and it appears most often in older English poetry, drama, and scripture-inflected prose. When a writer calls a place, object, or person accurst, they invoke the idea of an active curse — a doom laid upon it — or, by extension, something so hateful that it seems to deserve such a fate. The word carries a heavy, solemn connotation, blending moral outrage with a sense of supernatural punishment, which is why it suited the heightened registers of Shakespearean tragedy and Gothic fiction. Today, accurst is rare outside deliberate pastiche, quotation, or stylized fantasy writing, and most modern readers encounter it in classic literature rather than everyday speech. Writers who use it do so to lend an air of antiquity, gravity, and dread, since the compressed form sounds more abrupt and forceful than "accursed." Understanding accurst is useful chiefly for reading older texts with confidence and for recognizing the expressive range of English curse-words.
Under a curse; doomed or damned.
"The sailors believed the island was accurst and would never drop anchor there."
Archaic; a contracted variant of "accursed."
Detestable or deserving of strong condemnation.
"He shook his fist at the accurst machine that had cost him the race."
Often used in exclamatory or literary contexts.
Shakespeare reached for "accurst" when ordinary curses weren't strong enough — it's the poetic contraction that packs damnation into two crisp syllables.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of accurst
Accurst derives from the Middle English verb "curse," prefixed with "a-" (a reduced form of the Old English intensifying prefix), producing a past-participial adjective meaning "cursed." It developed alongside the fuller form "accursed," which shows the same formation with the Latin-influenced "ac-" prefix. The word belongs to the Germanic root behind "curse" itself, and its closest relatives are simply the other forms of that same word family rather than borrowings from Latin or Greek.
Related word forms
How accurst is actually used
Archaic and highly literary; found chiefly in older poetry and prose, notably in Shakespeare and the King James Bible tradition. Carries a strong negative, often religious connotation of divine condemnation. In modern writing it appears mainly for deliberate archaic or dramatic effect.
Easily confused with accurst
"Accursed" is the standard modern spelling of the same word, while "accurst" is an older, contracted literary variant.