accretion

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin accrētiō (“an increasing, growing larger”),^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} a noun of action from the past participle of accrēscō (“to grow, increase”),^[2][3][5][8] formed from ad (“to”) and crēscō (“to grow”),^[3][8][6] from Proto-Indo-European *ker- (“to grow”).^[3] Etymonline notes that the Latin noun was used, for example, of the waxing moon.^[3] It belongs with the verb accrue and with accrete and crescent.^[3][8][6][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Growth by organic enlargement, in physical contexts: 1615, in Crooke's Mikrokosmographia.^[2][4][7] Etymonline gives the 1610s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Early use contrasted growth from within, by organic enlargement (1615), with growth by the gradual addition of matter from outside (before 1626, in Bacon).^[2][3][10] Johnson (1755) defined it as "the act of growing to another, so as to encrease it", quoting Bacon's remark that inanimate bodies have accretion but no nourishment.^[11] By the mid-17th century the word also meant what had been added from outside, often an extraneous or unwanted addition (before 1652, or the 1650s in Etymonline), and the growing of separate things into one (1656).^[2][3] Law adopted it in the 18th century for an increase of property by natural growth, as of land built up by a river or of money by interest (1756),^[2][7] and astronomy in the 19th for the coming together of matter, under gravity, to form a planet or star (1857).^[2][12]

Timeline

• 1615 – growth by organic enlargement.^[2][4][7]
• before 1626 – growth by the gradual external addition of matter.^[2]
• before 1652 – something added from outside, an extraneous addition.^[2] Etymonline dates this sense to the 1650s.^[3]
• 1656 – the growing of separate things into one.^[2][10]
• before 1684 – growth in non-physical and figurative contexts.^[2]
• 1756 – in law, an increase of property by natural growth.^[2]
• 1857 – in astronomy, the coming together of matter to form a celestial body.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. Gradual growth or increase in size, especially by the addition of matter or parts from outside: the slow accretion of silt in the harbour.^[7][12][2]
2. Something added gradually, often from outside or as an unnecessary addition: Later accretions had obscured the original legend.^[12][2]
3. The growing together of parts that are normally separate, as in plants or animals.^[12][2][10]
4. (astronomy) The accumulation of matter, drawn together by gravity, to form a planet, star or other body.^[12][2]
5. (law) An increase of land by natural forces, as by alluvion from a river or the sea; also, an increase in a beneficiary's share of an estate when another fails to take theirs.^[7][12][2]
6. (pathology) An abnormal adhesion of parts, or a mass of foreign matter collected in a cavity.^[12]

Word family

• accretionary
• accretive
• nonaccretion
• accretion disk

Related words

• accrescence
• accrescent
• accrete
• accrual
• accrue
• crescent

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins