How to assess “an access of butchness”

Question

I read this phrase in Alan Bennett’s Diary years ago and found it so unusual I’ve never forgotten it. Italics mine:

8 December. Trying to find someone a Meccano set for Christmas, I’m reminded of a couple, friends of Russell H., who had a son of twelve or so who they were worried might be growing up gay. However, they were greatly heartened when the boy said that what he wanted for Christmas was a Meccano set. Delighted by what they saw as an access of butchness, they bought him the biggest set they could find …

The Free Dictionary provides this fifth and final definition for the noun access:

5. An outburst or onset: an access of rage.

And Dictionary.com this:

5. an attack or onset, as of a disease.

My Shorter OED lists ten definitions of access, of which:

1. A (sudden) coming on of illness b. spec an Ague fit (LME-L19)

and

10. An outburst of anger or other emotion.

In four decades of extensive reading in English, I have never come across “access of” until this reading. Given the definitions, whether outburst or onset, I think Bennett’s use of it in context is brilliant.

I’m curious to find other examples of this usage. Is it archaic? Precious? Fully contemporary? Is it more British, more American? Doing an internet search for “access of” does not lead to obvious examples. Typically you’ll find “access of (subject) to (object).” This has me thinking it must be used more in literary contexts. And if so, does anyone have any contemporary examples of its use?

Answer 1

From Jonathan's Franzen's Freedom (2011): "Patty did her utmost to play this role, but finally, in an access of depression, she sat down..." (p. 183). Consonant with usage 1 in the Shorter Oxford.

Nb Mind you, the copy I have of Freedom is the uncorrected first UK edition, which was pulped since it was not printed from the final proofs, and includes hundreds of mistakes. So if ever this usage was likely to be a typo for 'excess' this would be the instance! (But, of course, it is not.)

Answer 2

It's a rare, but perfectly normal, usage: my Chambers dictionary gives one meaning of access as 'addition or accession', which probably gives a clue to the derivation. Dictionary.com has a quotation:

"... protesting against this unprecedented access of generosity. The very picture, as MCEWAN said, of a good man struggling with the adversity of overwhelming good fortune."

— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 100, May 9, 1891 • Various

And it seems altogether more likely than a repeated misprint for 'delighted by an excess'.

Answer 3

From OED...

access - 4. The action of coming towards, coming, approach, advance. Contrasted with recess.

...the parents saw the boy's asking for a Meccano set for Christmas as evidence that he was moving towards butch/masculine behaviour, and that their fears of him "growing up gay" were misplaced.

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EDIT: I was vaguely aware of the usage before seeing this question, though to be honest I thought it was hopelessly archaic. Apparently not - although usage has rapidly declined over recent decades, it actually peaked around the 30s, so I guess all I can say is it's a bit dated/formal/literary.

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EDIT2: I'm now inclined to think Bennett is using the word with OED sense 11...

(fig.) An outburst; a sudden fit of anger or other passion. (Modern, after Fr. accès.)

I suspect this "modern" usage may gain some traction by association with excess, and that in some cases this would be a better choice of word anyway.

Answer 4

Merriam-Webster's Eleventh Collegiate Dictionary (2003) suggests that the relevant senses of access are the oldest ones:

access n {ME, fr AF & L; AF acces, fr. L accessus approach, fr. accedere to approach — more at ACCEDE} (14c) 1 a : ONSET 2 [that is, "BEGINNING, COMMENCEMENT"] b : a fit of intense feeling : OUTBURST

To illustrate the rise and and fall of access in the sense of "onset" our "outburst," here is the Ngram chart for "an access of" for the period 1800–2005:

According to this chart, the heyday of "an access of" was approximately 1890 to 1930.

Here are a few representative Google Books matches for the phrase. From Abraham Rees, The Cyclopædia, Or, Universal Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Literature (1819):

ACCESS, in a general sene, signifies the approach of a thing toward another.

In which sense, access stands opposed to recess.

...

ACCESS, in Medicine, denotes a fit, or return of some periodical disease.

We say an access of the gout, but especially of an ague, an intermitting fever, an epilepsy, &e. an access of madness; sometimes also a prophetical access, a cold access, &e. Access is frequently confounded with Paroxysm: but they are different things ; an access being frequently the beginning or first onset of a disease, a PAROXYSM is the height of it.

From Mary Forrest, Women of the South Distinguished in Literature (1861):

And yet a wave of the mesmerizer's hand will bring the subject back from the higher to the lower every-day consciousness where all that he has been saying and doing in his somnambulic state is an utter blank! Another wave of the hand, or an access of natural somnambulism, intirely independent of mesmerism, and lo! all the knowledge of the former state is restored, as if a curtain had been lifted.

From Edgar Rice Burroughs, Pirates of Venus (1934):

As I stooped and put my arms about the corpse to lower it into the grave, I was astounded to discover that it was quite warm. This put an entirely new aspect on the matter. A man dead for eighteen hours should be cold. Could it be that Kamlot was not dead? I pressed an ear to his chest; faintly I heard the beating of his heart. Never before had I experienced such an access of relief and joy. I felt as one reborn to new youth, to new hopes, to new aspirations. I had not realized until that instant the depth of my loneliness.

And from Richard Wolheim, The Thread of Life (1986):

A thought of some kind about the father, an access of rage against someone or other occurs, and it engages with the disposition of anger in just the same way as the perception of the father did, and to the same effect: there is a manifestation of anger against the father, which is an access of rage.

I've come across this sense of access in books for years, and to my U.S. ear it sounds perfectly normal and contemporary in such phrases as "an access of caution." But that may say more about me and my reading habits than about the currency of the word in this sense.

Answer 5

I have never heard this usage before, which for me is pretty unusual. Taking a stab in the dark, I would say that this is almost certainly an archaic, british term.

I say probably archaic, because if it was recently introduced I would probably be familiar with it, while if it was very cutting-edge it wouldn't be in any dictionaries yet.

I say probably british, because britain has a much longer history than america, and thus a preponderance of archaic terms. The social and cultural linguistic traditions are different, and it is very unusual to find a no-longer used american term that isn't also an archaic british term, while the converse is common.

Answer 6

In Portuguese it is kind of common to make a usage like this. Did Alan Bennett speak/read any latin languages? It is possible that he got used to some form of expression that is commonly used in latin languages and made use of it in english, a use that is uncommon but not wrong, but sounded natural to him.

Answer 7

I doubt this is anything other than a misspelling for “excess of butchness”.