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WordWealth:
accretion
ac·cre·tion
 ,
n.
1. an increase by
natural growth or by gradual external addition; growth in size or
extent.
2. the result of
this process.
3. an added part;
addition: The last part of the legend is a later accretion.
4. the growing
together of separate parts into a single whole.
5. Law.
increase of property by gradual natural additions, as of land by
alluvion.
[1605–15; < L accr ti n-
(s. of accrti),
equiv. to accrt(us),
ptp. of accrscere
to grow (ac- AC-
+ cr-
grow + -tus ptp. suffix) + -in-
-ION]
—ac·cre  tive, ac·cretion·ar y,
adj. (Random
House Webster's Unabridged);
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So, I don't think there was really any one dramatic turning point; I think
there was an accretion of well-intentioned but also self-serving
misconceptions and wrong signals that white liberals sent to non-whites who
were searching for some recognition and justice. ——
Letting Go of Race, The Atlantic,
an
Interview with Jim Sleeper; August
21, 1997; Talking about the ubiquitous
color-coding of American public life and why it must end.
Nobody has ever seen direct evidence for
inflow. We know from general physical arguments that the active galaxies
are powered by accretion of gas onto the black hole, but no one's ever
seen it. There's a possibility that these data indicate that we are
actually starting to see direct evidence for accretion.—— Dr Richard
Mushotzky, a scientist from the Nasa Goddard Center, in
Black Hole Detected Swallowing Matter,
August 17, 1999
Junger is not a moralizing journalist. His stories in Fire, many of
which have been previously published, tend to end as they begin—with a
discovered detail or an irresistible fact, rather than an epiphany or a
petition. The accretion of
minutiae is his greatest talent: he lays down
the mundane beside the lyrical—patiently, without bravado.
——
Beth Kephart in Books and Critics,
Fire by Sebastian Junger;
Atlantic Monthly, Oct 2001
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