Etymologically
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accumulate

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /əˈkjuːmjʊˌleɪt/[1]
  • US: /əˈkju.mjəˌleɪt/[1]

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

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