accumulate

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin accumulātus, the past participle of accumulō (“to heap up, pile up; to add to, increase”),^[2][3][4][5] formed from ad- (“to; here, in addition”) and cumulō (“to heap up”),^[4][6][3] from cumulus (“a heap”),^[6][4][7] from a suffixed form of Proto-Indo-European *keue- (“to swell”).^[4] The OED compares Middle French accumuler (1327), Spanish acumular (about 1422) and Italian accumulare (before 1321).^[2] Johnson derived it from the Latin verb.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

To heap up in a mass, to amass, especially wealth: about 1487, in Skelton's translation of Diodorus Siculus, in the OED's revised entry.^[2] Earlier dictionaries dated it to 1529 or the 1520s.^[3][4][9]

Semantic evolution

The adjective accumulate, heaped up, is recorded from 1533, in More, at first mainly as a past participle; that use was later taken over by accumulated.^[2][10] From 1613 the verb could be used without an object for amassing wealth, and since 1615 at Oxford University for taking degrees by accumulation, now rare.^[2][10] Johnson (1755) gave it as transitive only, used literally, as of money, or figuratively, as of merit or wickedness, quoting Othello's "On horror's head horrors accumulate".^[8] The intransitive sense, to grow into a mass or increase in quantity, is from 1757 in the OED and 1759 in Etymonline.^[2][4] The noun accumulation is older, from 1490, in Caxton's Eneydos.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1487 – transitive, to heap up, amass.^[2]
• 1490 – the noun accumulation.^[3]
• 1533 – adjective, heaped up.^[2][5]
• 1613 – intransitive, to amass wealth.^[2]
• 1615 – at Oxford, to take degrees by accumulation.^[2]
• 1757 – intransitive, to increase in quantity, build up.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To gather or collect gradually; to amass: Over forty years he accumulated a huge collection of maps.^[11][5][2]
2. To increase in quantity or build up: Snow accumulated against the fence overnight.^[11][5][2]
3. (Oxford University, now rare) To take several degrees together or at shorter intervals than usual.^[2][10]

Adjective

1. Heaped up; accumulated.^[5][2][10]

Word family

• accumulable
• unaccumulated
• accumulative
• overaccumulate
• reaccumulate
• nonaccumulating
• decumulate

Related words

• accumulation
• accumulator
• cumulus
• cumulative
• cumulate

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins