accretion
Part of speech: noun
Morphological type: derivation
Topics: astrophysics
geography
geology
law
natural-sciences
property
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.
Base: accrēscō
Affixes: -tiō
Inflected forms:
form: accretions
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: 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.
pos: noun
tags: also
figuratively
uncountable
examples: 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.
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.
gloss: (Gradual) increase by an external addition of matter; (countable) an instance of this.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
examples: Near-synonym: accumulation
A mineral augments not by growth, but by accretion.
[…] Plants doe nouriſh; Inanimate Bodies doe not: They haue an Accretion, but no Alimentation.
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.
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.
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.
Two-story log buildings, in the business part of town, brought him from forty to fifty thousand dollars apiece. These fresh accretions of capital were immediately invested in other ventures.
Written by accretion rather than from a single author's interpretation Wikipedia has a neo-positivist mania for facts that devalues interpretation in depth, yet in matching [Otto] Friedrich's review against [Vladimir] Nabokov it also shows that it is far from neutral.
The systematic accretion of violence and complicity that engulfed whole populations at extreme velocity invoked a kind of bewilderment that ended in paralysis, even for many of the greatest minds of the twentieth century.
gloss: (Gradual) increase by an external addition of matter; (countable) an instance of this.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: Followed by of: external addition of matter to a thing which causes it to grow, especially in amount or size.
pos: noun
tags: also
figuratively
uncountable
examples: [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.
gloss: The process of separate particles aggregating or coalescing together; concretion; (countable) a thing formed in this manner.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
examples: 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.
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.
gloss: The process of separate particles aggregating or coalescing together; concretion; (countable) a thing formed in this manner.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: 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.
gloss: Something gradually added to or growing on a thing externally.
pos: noun
tags: countable
figuratively
examples: 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, […]
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.
gloss: Something gradually added to or growing on a thing externally.
pos: noun
tags: countable
figuratively
uncountable
examples: 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.
gloss: 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.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
gloss: 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.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
Related words: accrescence
accrescent
accretal
accrete
accretive
accrual
accrue
accruement
accruer
decretion
secretion
Derived words: accretional
accretionally
accretionary
accretion disc
accretion disk
accretion-powered pulsar
accretion shock
coaccretion
co-accretion
hyperaccretion
nonaccretion
oligarchic accretion
reaccretion
Translations:
lang: Bulgarian
word: прираст
roman: prirast
lang: Czech
word: zvětšení
lang: Czech
word: přírůstek
lang: Dutch
word: accretie
lang: Dutch
word: vermeerdering
lang: Esperanto
word: alkresko
lang: Finnish
word: kasaantuminen
lang: Finnish
word: kerääntyminen
lang: French
word: accroissement
lang: German
word: Anwachsen
lang: German
word: Zuwachs
lang: Italian
word: accrezione
lang: Italian
word: accrescimento
lang: Latin
word: accrēsciamentum
lang: Polish
word: akrecja
lang: Polish
word: przyrost
lang: Portuguese
word: acreção
lang: Romanian
word: dezvoltare
lang: Russian
word: нара́щивание
roman: naráščivanije
lang: Spanish
word: acrecencia
lang: Ukrainian
word: наро́щування
roman: naróščuvannja
lang: Bulgarian
word: срастване
roman: srastvane
lang: Finnish
word: kasautuminen
lang: Finnish
word: kasautuma
lang: French
word: accrétion
lang: Greek
word: πρόσφυση
roman: prósfysi
lang: Polish
word: akrecja
lang: Russian
word: сраще́ние
roman: sraščénije
lang: Russian
word: сраста́ние
roman: srastánije
lang: Ukrainian
word: зроста́ння
roman: zrostánnja
lang: Bulgarian
word: на́леп
roman: nálep
lang: Finnish
word: kasautuma
lang: Finnish
word: kerääntymä
lang: Polish
word: przyrost