accrue

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English acreuen, also acruwen,^[2][3] apparently borrowed from Anglo-Norman acru, also accru and acreu,^[4][5] the past participle of acreistre (“to increase”),^[4][6] recorded in Anglo-Norman from the first third of the 12th century.^[5] That verb, now French accroître,^[7][8] comes from Latin accrēscō (“to grow, increase”),^[9][10][11] formed from ad- (“to”) and crēscō (“to grow”),^[9][10][7] from Proto-Indo-European *ker- (“to grow”).^[7][9] Etymonline, Barnhart and Merriam-Webster Unabridged start instead from the French noun: Old French acreue (“growth, increase”), the feminine of the participle.^[7][10][3] Barnhart rejects the older view that the verb came from the obsolete English noun accrue, which appears later.^[10] The revised OED dates that noun to 1548,^[4][3] against 1577 in Barnhart and the 1570s in Etymonline,^[10][7] and takes it as probably partly from the verb and partly from Middle French accrue.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of property or rights, to fall to someone as an addition: in 1440, in a letter of R. Repps among the Paston Letters, the goods of an outlaw "arn acruwyed on to the Kyng".^[4][2][7]

Semantic evolution

The word began in the law of property, for what falls to someone as an increment.^[2][7] By 1540 a cause of action could be said to accrue when it arose as an enforceable claim.^[4] From about 1576 the verb was used of anything that springs up as a natural growth, especially interest on invested money.^[4][12] Johnson (1755) notes that it was at first neutral but that later authors used it mostly of an advantage or improvement.^[13] Two senses of growing and of gathering did not last: "to grow by addition, increase" (1586–1856) and "to gather up" (1594–1665).^[4] The modern transitive uses are recent: to build up over time from 1929, of an employee's leave from 1933, in the United States at first, and in accounting, to make provision for a charge or credit not yet paid, from 1915.^[4] Etymonline dates "gain by increment" to 1881.^[7]

Timeline

• 1440 – to fall to someone as an addition or increment.^[4][2][10]
• 1540 – in law, of a cause of action, to arise as an enforceable claim.^[4]
• 1548 – noun, an increase or addition.^[4][3]
• c. 1576 – to arise as a natural growth or result, especially of interest.^[4]
• 1586 – to grow by addition (obsolete after 1856).^[4]
• 1594 – transitive, to gather up (obsolete after 1665).^[4]
• 1915 – in accounting, to make provision for a charge or credit not yet paid.^[4]
• 1929 – transitive, to build up over time.^[4] Etymonline dates this sense to 1881.^[7]
• 1933 – of an employee, to build up leave.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To come to someone as a natural gain or advantage: Benefits accrue to those who stay with the firm.^[4][14][3]
2. To arise or grow as a natural result, especially of interest on money invested: Interest accrues on the deposit every month.^[4][14][3]
3. (law) Of a right or claim, to come into existence so that it can be enforced.^[4][14][3]
4. To build up or accumulate something over time, such as leave from a job.^[4]
5. In accounting, to enter a charge or credit not yet paid at the end of a financial period.^[4]
6. (obsolete, 1586–1856) To grow or increase.^[4][12]
7. (obsolete, 1594–1665) To gather up or collect.^[4][12]

Noun

1. (obsolete) An addition or increase.^[3][4]

Word family

• accruement
• accruable
• accrual

Related words

• accretion
• accrete
• crescent
• crew
• recruit

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
6. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
9. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins