Definition
To grow to; to accrue or attach to something and become united with it. In civil law and early English law, acocrescere described the process by which one thing becomes permanently joined to another — most commonly land that accumulates by natural forces such as alluvion (the gradual deposit of soil by water). The term captures not merely physical addition but legal absorption: the added matter passes to the owner of the principal thing and becomes inseparable from it in the eyes of the law.
Why It Matters in Research
Acocrescere is a term of art from Roman civil law that migrated into early English legal writing and appears primarily in pre-modern sources. Researchers encountering the term in historical documents — particularly those touching on land boundaries, riparian rights, or accession — should understand that it signals the civilian doctrine of accession applied to real property. The word does not appear in modern statutory language or contemporary court opinions; when modern law addresses the same concept, it uses the English terms "accession," "alluvion," or "accretion." A researcher who encounters acocrescere in an old English or ecclesiastical law context should trace the analysis forward through those modern equivalents, not expect the Latin term itself to generate useful contemporary results. The Digest reference (Dig. 41, 1, 30) points directly to the Roman law of acquisition of ownership, which is the authoritative civilian source for this doctrine and its boundaries.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) is the only shelf source to define this term directly, rendering it a narrow entry with a single point of authority. Black's defines it concisely: "To grow to; to pass to, and become united with, as soil to land per alluvionem," citing Digest 41, 1, 30. No significant divergence exists across historical sources because the term is sufficiently specialized that general legal dictionaries outside the civilian tradition largely ignore it. The Digest citation is genuine and anchors the concept in the Roman law of natural acquisition — specifically the title dealing with acquisition of ownership through accession and natural events. Researchers should note that Black's 2nd Ed. reproduces the citation with a minor typographical variant ("alluvtonem" in some printings rather than "alluvionem"), which is simply a printing error and not a substantive distinction.