Definition
To grow to; to pass to and become united with. A Latin term from the civil law and old English law describing the process by which something accrues to or becomes attached to a larger thing, most typically soil or land added by natural processes such as alluvion. The term captures both the physical uniting of one thing with another and the legal consequence that follows: the added portion becomes part of the whole, subject to the same ownership.
Why It Matters in Research
Aocrescere appears in civil law and early common law sources but is rarely encountered in modern legal writing. Researchers working in historical property law — particularly disputes involving riparian boundaries, alluvion, accretion, or natural land formation — may encounter the term in Latin maxims, Digest citations, or early English land records. Its functional meaning is carried in modern law by accretion and accession, so a researcher tracing doctrine forward should shift to those terms once the common law reception period is passed. The Digest citation (41, 1, 30) is the anchor text: researchers working with Roman law sources or civilian jurisdictions will find the doctrinal origin there. The term does not appear in most modern legal dictionaries, so its presence in a historical document is itself a dating and source signal.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed., Supplemental) is the only shelf source to record this term, defining it as "to grow to; to pass to, and become united with, as soil to land per alluvionem," with direct citation to Digest 41, 1, 30. The definition is compact and functional. No divergence among historical sources is available because the term does not appear to have received extended treatment in English-language legal dictionaries beyond this single entry. The Digest passage itself concerns the acquisition of ownership through natural accession — the paradigm case being soil deposited by a river onto adjacent land. The civil law tradition treated such accretions as passing automatically to the riparian owner by operation of law, a principle that migrated into early English common law and eventually into equity. Black's entry is faithful to this lineage. What the historical dictionary record does not supply is any common law case development or statutory treatment, reflecting the term's status as learned Latin vocabulary rather than operative English legal terminology.
Jurisdictional Note
The underlying doctrine — that naturally deposited land accrues to the owner of the adjoining parcel — is recognized across common law and civilian jurisdictions, though the precise rules for alluvion, avulsion, and accretion vary by state and country. The Latin term aocrescere itself has no operative legal force in modern domestic proceedings; its significance is purely historical and comparative.