accretion
nounUK /əˈkɹiːʃn̩/ · US /əˈkɹiʃən/
Etymology PIE word *h₂éd Learned borrowing from Latin accrētiō (“increase, increment”) + English -ion (suffix forming nouns denoting actions or processes, or their results). Accrētiō is derived from accrēscō (“to grow, increase”) + -tiō (suffix forming nouns denoting actions or processes, or their results); and accrēscō is from ac- (a variant of ad-, prefix meaning ‘to’, or having an intensifying effect) + crēscō (“to grow; to increase”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱer- (“to cause to grow; to grow; to nourish”)). Doublet of accrue, crescent, and increase.
10 senses
- 1Increase by natural growth, especially the gradual…
- 2(Gradual) increase by an external addition of matter…
- 3The process by which material is added to a geological…
- 4Followed by of: external addition of matter to a thing…
- 5The process of separate particles aggregating or…
- 6The formation of planets, stars, and other celestial…
- 7Something gradually added to or growing on a thing externally.
- 8A substance which has built up on the surface of an…
- 9Increase in property by the addition of other property…
- 10Increase of an inheritance to an heir or legatee due to…
Also, Figuratively Increase by natural growth, especially the gradual increase of organic bodies by the internal addition of matter; organic growth; also, the amount of such growth.
- Warwick was unable to perceive much change in the market-house. […] There might have been a slight accretion of the moss and lichen on the shingled roof.1900, Charles W[addell] Chesnutt, chapter I, in The House Behind the Cedars, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company […], →OCLC, page 3:
- The immense accretion of flesh which had descended on her in middle life like a flood of lava on a doomed city had changed her from a plump active little woman with a neatly-turned foot and ankle into something as vast and august as a natural phenomenon.1920, Edith Wharton, chapter IV, in The Age of Innocence, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC, book I, page 25:
(Gradual) increase by an external addition of matter; (countable) an instance of this.
- Near-synonym: accumulation
- A mineral augments not by growth, but by accretion.
4 more examples
- […] Plants doe nouriſh; Inanimate Bodies doe not: They haue an Accretion, but no Alimentation.1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “VII. Century. [Experiments in Consort, Touching the Affinities, and Differences, betweene Plants and Inanimate Bodies.]”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC, paragraph 602, page 154:
- God hath from the beginning made all the Kindes of Hard, and Heavie, and Diaphanous Bodies that are, and of ſuch Figure and magnitude as he thought fit; but hovv ſmall ſoever, they may by accretion become greater in the Mine, or perhaps by generation, though vve knovv not hovv.1678, Thomas Hobbes, “Of Gravity and Gravitation”, in Decameron Physiologicum: Or, Ten Dialogues of Natural Philosophy. […], London: […] J[ames] C[ottrel] for W[illiam] Crook[e] […], →OCLC, page 94:
- Suddenly starting from a proposition, exactly and sharply defined, in terms of utmost simplicity and clearness, he rejected the forms of customary logic, and by a crystalline process of accretion, built up his ocular demonstrations in forms of gloomiest and ghastliest grandeur, or in those of the most airy and delicious beauty—so minutely and distinctly, yet so rapidly, that the attention which was yielded to him was chained till it stood among his wonderful creations—till he himself dissolved the spell, and brought his hearers back to common and base existence, by vulgar fancies or exhibitions of the ignoblest passion.1849 October 9, Rufus Wilmot Griswold, “Edgar Poe”, in N[athaniel] Parker Willis, Hurry-graphs; or, Sketches of Scenery, Celebrities and Society, Taken from Life, 2nd edition, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner, published 1851, →OCLC, page 241:
- Our social life is largely a form, a whirl, a commercial relation, a display, a duty, the result of external accretion, not of internal growth. It is not in any sense a unity, nor an expression of the best intellectual life, which seeks other channels.1890 August, Amelia Gere Mason, “The Women of the French Salons: The Salons of the Eighteenth Century”, in The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine, volume XVIII (New Series; volume XL overall), number 4, New York: The Century Company, →OCLC, page 596, column 1:
Also, Figuratively Followed by of: external addition of matter to a thing which causes it to grow, especially in amount or size.
- [W]hile ſome fevv grevv rich by turning Money in their ovvn Banks, there vvas a falſe Appearance of VVealth vvithin, but no Accretion of Riches from abroad.1713 October 18 (Gregorian calendar), Richard Steele, “October 8. [1713].”, in The Englishman: Being the Sequel of the Guardian, collected edition, number 2, London: […] Sam[uel] Buckley […], published 1714, →OCLC, page 12:
The process of separate particles aggregating or coalescing together; concretion; (countable) a thing formed in this manner.
- The accretion of particles forms a solid mass.
- [T]he vvhole Country of Holland ſeems to be an Accretion partly by the Sea, partly by the River Rhine.a. 1677 (date written), Matthew Hale, “The Sixth Evidence of Fact Proving Novitatem Generis Humani, Namely, the History of the Patres Familiarum, and the Original Plantation of the Continents and Islands of the World”, in The Primitive Origination of Mankind, Considered and Examined According to the Light of Nature, London: […] William Godbid, for William Shrowsbery, […], published 1677, →OCLC, section II, page 191:
1 more example
- She had no fear of the shadows; her sole idea seemed to be to shun mankind—or rather that cold accretion called the world, which, so terrible in the mass, is so unformidable, even pitiable, in its units.1891, Thomas Hardy, chapter XIII, in Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented […], volume I, London: James R[ipley] Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., […], →OCLC, phase the second (Maiden No More), page 166:
Astrophysics The formation of planets, stars, and other celestial bodies by the aggregating of matter drawn together by gravity; also, the growth of a celestial body through this process.
- This theory, known as pebble accretion, is reshaping how scientists think about the early solar system. […] "In many ways, pebble accretion is the most efficient way of adding mass to a body," says Lambrechts.2018 April 26, Alexandra Witze, “Earth may have been Formed by a Bunch of Tiny Space Pebbles”, in Jeffrey Goldberg, editor, The Atlantic, Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic Monthly Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 28 Jan 2023:
Figuratively Something gradually added to or growing on a thing externally.
- accretion of ice
- [T]hoſe places, vvhich vvere formerly filled vvith VVood, have buried the fallen Trees three, four, or five foot deep in the ground, by an accretion or cover of Earth, derived to them ſometimes by Alluvions or Floods, […]a. 1677 (date written), Matthew Hale, “A Brief Consideration of the Hypotheses that Concern the Eternity of the World”, in The Primitive Origination of Mankind, Considered and Examined According to the Light of Nature, London: […] William Godbid, for William Shrowsbery, […], published 1677, →OCLC, section I, page 96:
1 more example
- If therefore it is admitted that a large part of the narrative of Dionysius [of Halicarnassus] is false, what good ground have we for believing the rest? Assuming however that we are to strip off all the subordinate parts of his narrative, as a later accretion, and to retain only a nucleus of the leading facts, do we find that these can be safely accepted, and that he is confirmed in them by the agreement of the other historians? So far is this from being the case, that the accounts transmitted to us differ widely in the material points of the transaction.1855, George Cornewall Lewis, “History of Rome, from the Expulsion of the Kings to the Burning of the City by the Gauls (509–390 BCE)”, in An Inquiry into the Credibility of the Early Roman History […], volume 2, London: John W[illiam] Parker and Son, […], →OCLC, part I (From the Establishment of Consuls to the First Secession (509–494 b.c.)), § 17, page 75:
Figuratively A substance which has built up on the surface of an object, rather than become embedded in it.
- Accretions of dirt on clothing are often left in place by conservators because they can provide additional details about the artefact’s importance or history.
- Pure Lust is a double-edged analysis of the evolution of feminist spiritual system. In Pure Lust Daly attempts to pare away the accretions of patriarchal ideology and reveal the fundamental elements of emerging feminist philosophy.1985 February 2, Sandra Karp, “Making Female Experience Sacred”, in Gay Community News, volume 12, number 28, page 12:
Law, Property Increase in property by the addition of other property to it (for example, gain of land by alluvion (“the deposition of sediment by a river or sea”) or dereliction (“recession of water from the usual watermark”), or entitlement to the products of the property such as interest on money); or by the property owner acquiring another person’s ownership rights; accession; (countable) an instance of this.
Increase of an inheritance to an heir or legatee due to the share of a co-heir or co-legatee being added to it, because the latter person is legally unable to inherit the share.
Inheritance law
- Derived terms
- accretional, accretionally, accretionary, accretion disc, accretion disk, accretion-powered pulsar, accretion shock, coaccretion, co-accretion, hyperaccretion, nonaccretion, oligarchic accretion, reaccretion
- Related terms
- accrescence, accrescent, accretal, accrete, accretive, accrual, accrue, accruement, accruer, decretion, secretion