[ad. L. accumulātiōn-em, n. of action, f. accumulāre: see ACCUMULATE.]
1. The action of accumulating; heaping up, amassing, collecting lit. and fig.
1606. Shaks., Ant. & Cl., III. i. 19. His lieutenant, For quicke accumulation of renowne, which he atchiu’d by’ th’ minute, lost his fauour.
1612. Brerewood, Lang. & Relig., xiii. 136. That gathering of waters & discovery of the Earth, was made, not by any mutation in the Earth, but by a violent accumulation of the waters, or heaping them up on high.
1750. Johnson, Rambler, No. 147, ¶ 1. Little things grow by continual accumulation.
1825. McCulloch, Pol. Econ., IV. 415. In all tolerably well governed countries, the principle of accumulation has uniformly had a marked ascendancy over the principle of expence.
1875. Hamerton, Intell. Life, V. ii. 185. There are a hundred rules for getting rich, but the instinct of accumulation is worth all such rules put together.
2. The action or process of growing into a heap, or large amount. spec. The growth of a sum of money by the continuous addition of the interest to the principal.
1490. Caxton, Eneydos, xviii. 68. Merueyllouse sorowe, wherof her herte was surprysed in gret accumylacyon of extreme dysplaysur.
1828. Ld. Grenville, Sinking Fund, 9. The principle of unlimited accumulation was expressly excluded from that law, by a provision which limited to four millions the sinking fund then established.
c. 1854. Stanley, Sinai & Palest. (1858), iii. 172. The accumulation of ruins and rubbish from above must have raised its ancient level.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 189. They form, by their accumulation, a cone-shaped mound or hill.
3. The combination of several distinct acts or exercises into one, so that they are performed at a single exercise, or without the usual interval. spec. The taking of several degrees together, and in such a way that the exercises for the lower count as part work for the higher.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v., Accumulation of degrees, in an university, is used for the taking of several degrees together, and with fewer exercises, or nearer to each other, than the ordinary rules allow of.
1865. Monastic Life in Mid. Ages, in Englishm. Mag., Feb., 139. It would not appear that the divine offices were said then as now by accumulation, i. e. by joining several of the services together at convenient times.
4. An accumulated mass; a heap, pile or quantity formed by successive additions.
1490. Caxton, Eneydos, xv. 61. He was therof vtterly dysplaysed wherby a grete acumulacyon of yre and wrathe he begate wythin the roote of hys herte.
1665. Manley, Grotius’s Low-Countrey-Warrs, 6. This great Accumulation of Fortune, being transposed unto the Austrian Family … augmented their Power.
1760. Johnson, in Boswell (Routl.), 225. You [Dr. Burney] are an honest man to have formed so great an accumulation of knowledge.
1843. Carlyle, Past & Pres. (1858), 242. The Ant lays up accumulation of capital.
1876. Freeman, Norm. Conq., I. 656. The nickname evidently alludes to his great accumulations of property.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 64. The winter’s accumulation of snow is never completely melted by the summer sun.
