acumulación

Forms

acumulación f (plural acumulaciones)^[1] The form acomulación was in use in the 17th century and disappeared from the middle of the 18th.^[2] Cumulación and Saavedra Fajardo's comulación are recorded beside it.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin accumulātiō (“a heaping up”),^[4][1][2] from accumulō (“to heap up, pile up”), formed from ad- and cumulō (“to heap”).^[5][6][7] Corominas lists it, without a date, under acumular (1546–1548, Fernández de Oviedo), which he derives from the Latin verb, in the article on cúmulo.^[3][8] In classical Latin the noun is known only as a gardening term in Pliny, the heaping of earth round the roots of plants.^[5][9]

The Latin verb is built on cumulus (“heap, pile”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *kumo- and Proto-Indo-European *ḱuh₁-mo- (“heap”), comparing Ancient Greek κῦμα (kûma, “wave; sprout”).^[10] He notes that the short vowel is a difficulty, which may be explained by a shortening of pretonic long vowels or by the influence of tumulus (“mound”).^[10] The inherited Spanish outcome of this Latin noun is colmo.^[3]

The same Latin noun gave Portuguese acumulação, Catalan acumulació, French accumulation and Italian accumulazione.^[11][12][13] The French word is documented from 1336.^[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record in the CDH is in Cristóbal de Villalón's treatise on exchange and usury (1541), on debtors ruined “by the charges and accumulations of interest and usury”: por las cargas y acumulaciones de los interesses y usuras.^[15] The sense is the piling up of sums, the general sense of the Latin verb.^[15][6]

Semantic evolution

In the 16th and 17th centuries the word appears for the gathering of booty (1568) and the holding of several offices by one minister (1659–1664).^[15] Its main early use was legal: Hevia Bolaños's Curia Filípica (1603) uses acomulación for the joining of related court proceedings so that they are tried together, and the Diccionario de Autoridades (1726) called this the frequent forensic sense, decided by an auto de acumulación.^[2] The Academy's dictionary defined it as “the act of accumulating” from 1770 and as “the act and effect of accumulating” from 1884, noting until 1869 that it was used mostly in law.^[2][16]

Today it is used for any accumulation of things, matter or people, and for the material that collects in one place.^[17][18] Medicine uses it for the progressive rise in the concentration of a drug in the blood or tissues when doses are repeated at short intervals.^[19]

Timeline

• 1541 – the first record, in Villalón's treatise on exchange and usury.^[15]
• 1546–1548 – the verb acumular in Fernández de Oviedo.^[3][8]
• 1603 – the legal sense, as acomulación, in Hevia Bolaños's Curia Filípica.^[2]
• 1608 – acomulación recorded in Venezuela.^[20]
• 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades notes its frequent forensic use.^[2]
• 1884 – the Academy defines it as the act and effect of accumulating.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act or effect of accumulating; an accumulation or build-up: La acumulación de nieve cerró el puerto.^[4][1]
2. A mass of things gathered together, or matter collected in one place.^[17][18]
3. (law) The joining of two or more similar proceedings so that they are dealt with together; joinder.^[2][1]
4. (medicine) The progressive rise in the concentration of a drug in the plasma or tissues through repeated doses.^[19]

Related words

• acumular
• cúmulo
• colmo
• Latin cumulus

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. acumulación
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 290
4. ^ a b Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. acumulación
5. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. accumulātiō
6. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. accumulō
7. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. accumulo
8. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cúmulo
9. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. accumulatio
10. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. acumulação
12. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. acumulació
13. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 83
14. ^ Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es
15. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. acumulación
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 17
17. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. acumulación
18. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. acumulación
19. ^ a b Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. acumulación
20. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. acomulación