accumulate
/əˈkjuːmjʊleɪt
/- There is a fact of the matter when the question is global warming, and there is some hope of arriving at a definite answer by accumulating enough evidence.
- Doctors are still working as scientists though, since placebos have accumulated enough evidence to be accepted as scientifically valid.
- Some of the original slips are now being used in preparing new entries, as the words they illustrate finally accumulate enough evidence for inclusion.
Synonyms
- In the company's travel and tourism division, for instance, this has resulted in employees accumulating an overtime backlog of more than 100 hours.
- But during the downpours last November, the mound only succeeded in accumulating a huge expanse of water which had run off from saturated fields nearby.
- The Firm was said to have accumulated huge profits over years of illegal activity.
- They are so alive with nature's intelligence that fatigue-causing toxins cannot accumulate in the body when you eat them.
- If inhaled continuously these toxins accumulate in the body leading to serious health problems.
- When the rate of absorption exceeds the rate of elimination, toxins accumulate in the body.
Origin
Late 15th century: from Latin accumulat- 'heaped up', from the verb accumulare, from ad- 'to' + cumulus 'a heap'.
cloud from Old English:
The Old English word cloud was first used to refer to a mass of rock or earth, and is probably related to clot (Old English). Only around the end of the 13th century did the meaning ‘visible mass of condensed watery vapour’ develop, presumably because people could see a resemblance in shape between a cloud and rocks.
On cloud nine you are extremely happy. A possible source of the expression is the classification of clouds given in a meteorological guide published in 1896 called the International Cloud Atlas. According to this guide there are ten basic types of cloud, cumulonimbus being the one numbered nine. Cumulonimbus clouds are the ones that form a towering fluffy mass. They get their name from Latin cumulus ‘a heap’ found also in accumulate (Late Middle English). ‘Cloud nine’ is said to have been popularized by the Johnny Dollar radio show in the USA during the 1950s. Johnny Dollar was a fictional insurance investigator who got into a lot of scrapes. Every time he was knocked unconscious he was taken to ‘cloud nine’, where he recovered. Cloud cuckoo land is a translation of Greek Nephelokokkugia (from nephelē ‘cloud’ and kokkux ‘cuckoo’). This was the name the ancient Greek dramatist Aristophanes gave to the city built by the birds in his comedy The Birds. According to the proverb every cloud has a silver lining, even the gloomiest outlook contains some hopeful or consoling aspect. The saying is recorded from the 19th century, though John Milton expresses a similar sentiment in Comus in 1643: ‘Was I deceiv'd or did a sable cloud / Turn forth her silver lining on the night?’