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Noting that "accessore" is not an Italian word was on the tip of my tongue (or, rather, fingers), when I realized that not even "accessor" is an English word.

Terms used in programming languages are probably much more awkward in an English mother tongue's ears than in those of a foreigner.

I wonder if "by default" had any meaning in English before it was adopted in the IT context.

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“Accessor” is an English word. Sure, it originates in computing, but that doesn't make it any less part of the language.

I'll rephrase, Your Honor:

Even in English, "accessor" is a word that was rarely, if ever, used, before it was picked up in the programming languages jargon. So much that it has not made its way into some dictionaries, like Cambridge and Merriam-Webster.

Checking the Oxford English Dictionary (2nd Ed.), they have accessor only as a form of accessory (as a noun). So yeah, the programming use is "new".

fwiw, they have "default", in the computing sense of the preselected option, from 1966, while "by default" (in a legal context) has an example from 1764, "Where a defendant makes default, judgement shall be had against him by default."

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