accessory vs principal

accessory

noun
  • A person who is not present at a crime, but contributes to it as an assistant or instigator. 

  • Something that belongs to part of another main thing; something additional and subordinate, an attachment. 

  • Something in a work of art without being indispensably necessary, for example solely ornamental parts. 

  • An article that completes one's basic outfit, such as a scarf or gloves. 

adj
  • Having a secondary, supplementary or subordinate function by accompanying as a subordinate; aiding in a secondary way; being additional; contributing or being contributory. Said of things and actions, very rarely of people (and then usually in a humorous version of the legal sense [or due to confusion between the noun and the adjective]). 

  • Assisting a crime without actually participating in committing the crime itself; being connected as an incident or subordinate to a principal. 

  • Present in a minor amount, and not essential. 

principal

noun
  • The primary participant in a crime. 

  • The chief administrator of a school. 

  • A diapason, a type of organ stop on a pipe organ. 

  • The construction that gives shape and strength to a roof, generally a truss of timber or iron; or, loosely, the most important member of a piece of framing. 

  • A dancer at the highest rank within a professional dance company, particularly a ballet company. 

  • The first two long feathers of a hawk's wing. 

  • A security principal. 

  • A legal person that authorizes another (the agent) to act on their behalf; or on whose behalf an agent or gestor in a negotiorum gestio acts. 

  • The chief executive and chief academic officer of a university or college. 

  • The money originally invested or loaned, on which basis interest and returns are calculated. 

  • A partner or owner of a business. 

  • One of the turrets or pinnacles of waxwork and tapers with which the posts and centre of a funeral hearse were formerly crowned 

adj
  • Chosen or assumed among a branch of possible values of a multi-valued function so that the function is single-valued. 

  • Primary; most important; first level in importance. 

How often have the words accessory and principal occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )