| 词组 | accrue |
| 释义 | accrue Copperud 1970 advises us that two commentators recommend leaving accrue to legal and financial contexts; Bryson 1984 offers the same message. This being the case, we will largely ignore legal and financial uses and concentrate on those more general and literary contexts that tend to provoke criticism. Bryson 1984 begins by telling us that the word must mean to be added to bit by bit. The source of his notion is obscure; it is not to be found in the OED definitions (or in Merriam-Webster's) nor is it supported by etymology, since accrue comes ultimately from a Latin verb meaning "to grow." Perhaps Bryson had accrete in mind. Anyway, he illustrates his assertion with this example: "A balloon, for instance, cannot accrue." That is certainly true. Accrue has been used in contexts other than the legal and financial kind since the 16th century. Indeed, it appears that the usual financial uses grew out of a more general sense. The typical examples below show the word in its various constructions and also make clear which prepositions are idiomatic with accrue. Bernstein 1965 says accrue takes to, but in fact to is used only to indicate the recipient of the accruing; from, through, and for are usual for indicating its source: • ... the gain which accrues to his poetry ... from his superiority, and the loss which accrues to it from his defects —Matthew Arnold, Essays in Criticism, Second Series, 1888 • I have addressed the navvies on the advantages that would accrue to them if they married wealthy ladies of rank— W. S. Gilbert, The Sorcerer, 1877 • ... and some good repute accrues to him from his increased wealth —Thorstein Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class, 1899, in Outside Readings in Economics, Arleigh P. Hess, Jr., et al., 1951 • ... a good deal accrued eventually to my benefit through these visits —Osbert Sitwell, Noble Essences, 1950 • ... the réclame that would accrue to everyone concerned —S. J. Perelman, New Yorker, 1 Jan. 1972 • ... Macbeth, surrounded by disasters which have accrued from his evil ambition —Clyde S. Kilby, Poetry and Life, 1953 • However, to make any such study and analysis of the savings which may accrue through the use of electronic equipment —John W. Mauchly, Systems, September-October, 1954 • ... whatever credit or blame accrues for easing the way of the People's Republic into the United Nations —Richard H. Rovere, New Yorker, 18 Sept. 1971 The intransitive verb can, of course, be used without prepositions: • Though Florence's flood was an incalculable disaster, certain unexpected advantages accrued —Katharine Kuh, Saturday Rev., 22 July 1967 • ... the thesis that there is a threshold dose below which no harm accrues —The Economist, quoted in Atlas, March 1970 • My hatred has no consequences. It accrues only in my mind —Renata Adler, New Yorker, 24 Apr. 1971 Accrue also has transitive use: • It's been around five years now, accruing readers, even disciples, in snowball fashion —Robert Lambert, Media & Methods, March 1969 • While participating..., a student would accrue benefits on a monthly basis —Frank Newman, Change, May 1972 • People changed through the arithmetic of birth, marriage, and death, but not by going away. So families just accrued stories, which through the fullness of time, in those times, their own lives made —Eudora Welty, Esquire, December 1975 The foregoing examples show that accrue can be used unexceptionably in contexts having nothing to do with law or finance. The two following suggest that it can also be used when the author has been fishing for a word, and has apparently not caught the right one: • ... as the film goes along, some of Buck's dignity accrues to the Preacher, who becomes an engagingly childlike figure, and some of the Preacher's anarchism rubs off on Buck —Joseph McBride, Rolling Stone, 20 July 1972 • It is hard to say why, but some of the reasons accrue from overzealous building, when concrete was poured over the top of the greenery, the palms were blighted, and the beaches cut away —Horace Sutton, Saturday Rev., 10 Dec. 1977 You can use accrue in contexts neither financial nor legal, if you take care to use it clearly in one of its accepted meanings. Your dictionary will show you what those are. |
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