Definition
To accresce is to accrue or grow — specifically, to have a right, share, or interest fall into or accumulate to another by operation of law. The term appears primarily in Scots law and older civil law contexts, where it describes the process by which a portion that one party cannot or does not take passes to the remaining parties entitled under the same instrument or obligation. It is the verbal form underlying the doctrine of accretion (jus accrescendi), the right of survivorship among co-beneficiaries or co-legatees.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): To accrue; to increase or grow.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): "To accrue. [R.] To increase; to grow. [Obs.]"
The ordinary meaning captures simple growth or accumulation — interest accresces on a debt, a balance accresces over time. The legal sense is narrower and more specific: it describes the mechanism by which a lapsed, refused, or forfeited share shifts to surviving co-takers rather than falling into a residue or passing by intestacy. The gap matters because a researcher reading "accresce" in a legal instrument should not read it as mere growth but as a term of art invoking the accretion doctrine.
Common Confusion
ACCRESCE is often encountered as an unfamiliar verbal form and may be mistaken for a simple synonym of "accrue" in the general financial or contractual sense. The critical distinction: when a share or interest accresces, it does not merely grow — it transfers by operation of law to another taker under the same title. Separately, ACCRESCE should not be confused with ACCRETE (physical addition to land) or ACCRUE (the general vesting of a right or cause of action). The underlying doctrine — jus accrescendi — is also distinct from substitution, which requires an express alternative designation rather than operation of law.
Why It Matters in Research
This is a rare, archaic term most likely to appear in Scots law materials, older civil law treatises, and historical testamentary instruments. Researchers using the Law Mind corpus should note:
First, the term is rarely indexed independently. Searches on "accresce" may be sparse; search also for "accrescendi," "jus accrescendi," "accretion," and "right of survivorship" to capture the full doctrine.
Second, Burrill's sole citation is to Kames' Equity — a Scottish equity text. This signals that the term's natural habitat is Scots and mixed civil-common law jurisdictions. An English common law instrument of the same period may use different vocabulary to describe the same underlying result.
Third, the doctrine that accresce describes — the passing of a lapsed share to co-beneficiaries — operates differently across legal systems and time periods. In modern common law jurisdictions, anti-lapse statutes have largely displaced the common law rule, meaning the occasions for this vocabulary have diminished. A researcher encountering the term in a nineteenth-century American will or Scottish testament should situate it within the pre-statutory survivorship framework.
Fourth, the verbal form "accresce" is genuinely obsolete. Modern lawyers and judges discussing the same concept will use "accrue," "pass by accretion," or invoke the jus accrescendi by name. Historical sources using "accresce" are a reliable indicator of civilian or Scots law influence.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary is the sole source in the Law Mind shelf that treats this term directly. The entry is minimal: "In Scotch law. To accrue. 1 Kames' Equity, 247. See Accrescere." This brevity is itself informative — Burrill treats the term as derivative, directing the reader to the underlying Latin form Accrescere and to a specific Scots equity authority.
Webster's 1913 confirms the term's obsolescence in ordinary English usage, marking it as rare and archaic. The alignment between Webster and Wiktionary here is complete; neither common-usage source preserves a legal distinction.
What the historical dictionaries collectively miss is doctrine. Burrill supplies a label and a citation but no explanation of the mechanism or its consequences. A researcher seeking the substantive law must move beyond the dictionary entry to primary sources on jus accrescendi — Stair's Institutions, Erskine's Institute, or Bell's Dictionary and Digest of the Law of Scotland for Scots law; civilian treatises for comparative context.
Jurisdictional Note
The term is native to Scots law and carries civilian heritage. In English and American common law, the concept is expressed through different vocabulary (right of survivorship, lapse, anti-lapse). Modern American jurisdictions have largely codified survivorship and anti-lapse rules by statute, making the term itself effectively obsolete in contemporary U.S. practice. Researchers working in Scottish legal history or comparative private law will encounter it most frequently.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Law Mind Encyclopedia — Accretion (Property and Succession)
Law Mind Encyclopedia — Jus Accrescendi
Law Mind Encyclopedia — Lapse (Wills and Estates)