accrescere

Forms

accrescere (first-person singular present accrésco, first-person singular past historic accrébbi, past participle accresciùto, auxiliary (intransitive) èssere or (transitive) avére)^[1] Old Italian also wrote acrescere with a single c.^[2][3] Old Genoese had acrexer and Old Sicilian accrisiri.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin accrēscō (“to grow in addition, increase”), formed from crēscō (“to grow”) with the prefix ad-.^[2][5][1] The Latin verb lives on in French accroître, Old Occitan acreiser, Catalan acréixer, Spanish acrecer and Portuguese acrescer.^[4][6]

De Vaan derives the simple verb from a Proto-Italic stem *krē- (“to grow, increase”) and a PIE root Proto-Indo-European *k(w)reh₁- (“to become bigger, stronger”).^[7] He finds a link with *ḱerh₃- (“to feed”) tempting but hard to reconcile with the place of the ablaut vowel.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Proverbia que dicuntur, a Venetian poem of the last quarter of the 12th century.^[8] In the Sicilian School the verb was both transitive, “to make bigger, to make prosper” (Giacomo da Lentini, 1250), and intransitive, “to become greater” (Maestro Francesco, first half of the 13th century).^[4][9]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used the verb for growth in space (enlarging a building, extending lands and conquests, spreading the faith), in time, in quantity and number, and in strength.^[8] It also meant to bring up a child and, figuratively, to rise in worth or prestige, and the pronominal form could mean “to boast”.^[8] Dante used accrescere in 1304–1308, and accrescimento “increase” is older still, from Bonagiunta Orbicciani before 1257.^[2]

The adjective accrescitivo “able to increase” goes back to Dante, and as a grammatical noun, “augmentative”, it entered the first Crusca dictionary in 1612.^[2] In law, rights that pass on a death to the surviving heirs are said to accrescersi to them.^[10] Some southern dialects gave the verb farming senses: in the Abruzzo it means to skim oil off water with a shell or pan, and at Città Sant'Angelo to sweep the threshing floor.^[4]

Timeline

• 1175–1200 – The verb appears in the Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur.^[8]
• 1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses acrescere transitively.^[4][9]
• Before 1257 – Accrescimento is recorded in Bonagiunta Orbicciani.^[2]
• Before 1272 – King Enzo uses the intransitive sense “to grow greater”.^[2]
• 1304–1308 – Dante writes accrescere and accrescitivo.^[2]
• 1612 – The Crusca dictionary uses accrescitivo for an augmentative word.^[2]
• 1865 – Tommaseo–Bellini records accrescimento for the growth of a living organism.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To make greater in size or quantity; to increase, also figuratively: Ha accresciuto i suoi risparmi con un'eredità.^[9][11][12]
2. (transitive) To expand or strengthen, to make prosper: accrescere un settore economico.^[9][13]
3. (transitive) To increase in number.^[9][14]
4. (transitive, uncommon) To add.^[9][15]
5. (intransitive, auxiliary essere, and pronominal accrescersi) To become greater, to grow: Il malcontento tra i soci si è accresciuto.^[9][11][12]
6. (intransitive, uncommon) To grow in some quality: accrescere in fama.^[14][13]

Word family

• accrescimento
• accrescitivo
• accrescersi
• accrescitore
• accrescibile
• riaccrescere

Related words

• crescere
• Latin accresco
• French accroître

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it
4. ^ a b c d e Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 1, 326
5. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
9. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
10. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
11. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
13. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
15. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli