Chapter 7

Ac*ca"di*an (&?;), a. [From the city Accad. See Gen. x. 10.] Pertaining to a race supposed to have lived in Babylonia before the Assyrian conquest.

-- Ac*ca"di*an, n., Ac"cad (&?;), n. Sayce.

Ac*cede" (&?;), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Acceded; p. pr. & vb. n. Acceding.] [L. accedere to approach, accede; ad + cedere to move, yield: cf. F. accédere. See Cede.]

1. To approach; to come forward; -- opposed to recede. [Obs.] T. Gale.

2. To enter upon an office or dignity; to attain.

Edward IV., who had acceded to the throne in the year 1461. T. Warton.

If Frederick had acceded to the supreme power. Morley.

3. To become a party by associating one's self with others; to give one's adhesion. Hence, to agree or assent to a proposal or a view; as, he acceded to my request.

The treaty of Hanover in 1725 . . . to which the Dutch afterwards acceded. Chesterfield.

Syn. -- To agree; assent; consent; comply; acquiesce; concur.

Ac*ced"ence (&?;), n. The act of acceding.

Ac*ced"er (&?;), n. One who accedes.

||Ac*cel`er*an"do (&?;), a. [It.] (Mus.) Gradually accelerating the movement.

Ac*cel"er*ate (&?;), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Accelerated (&?;); p. pr. & vb. n. Accelerating.] [L. acceleratus, p. p. of accelerare; ad + celerare to hasten; celer quick. See Celerity.] 1. To cause to move faster; to quicken the motion of; to add to the speed of; -- opposed to retard.

2. To quicken the natural or ordinary progression or process of; as, to accelerate the growth of a plant, the increase of wealth, etc.

3. To hasten, as the occurence of an event; as, to accelerate our departure.

Accelerated motion (Mech.), motion with a continually increasing velocity. -- Accelerating force, the force which causes accelerated motion. Nichol.

Syn. -- To hasten; expedite; quicken; dispatch; forward; advance; further.

Ac*cel`er*a"tion (&?;), n. [L. acceleratio: cf. F. accélération.] The act of accelerating, or the state of being accelerated; increase of motion or action; as, a falling body moves toward the earth with an acceleration of velocity; -- opposed to retardation.

A period of social improvement, or of intellectual advancement, contains within itself a principle of acceleration. I. Taylor.

(Astr. & Physics.) Acceleration of the moon, the increase of the moon's mean motion in its orbit, in consequence of which its period of revolution is now shorter than in ancient times. - - Acceleration and retardation of the tides. See Priming of the tides, under Priming. -- Diurnal acceleration of the fixed stars, the amount by which their apparent diurnal motion exceeds that of the sun, in consequence of which they daily come to the meridian of any place about three minutes fifty-six seconds of solar time earlier than on the day preceding. -- Acceleration of the planets, the increasing velocity of their motion, in proceeding from the apogee to the perigee of their orbits.

Ac*cel"er*a*tive (&?;), a. Relating to acceleration; adding to velocity; quickening. Reid.

Ac*cel"er*a`tor (&?;), n. One who, or that which, accelerates. Also as an adj.; as, accelerator nerves.

Ac*cel"er*a*to*ry (&?;), a. Accelerative.

Ac*cel"er*o*graph (&?;), n. [Accelerate + -graph.] (Mil.) An apparatus for studying the combustion of powder in guns, etc.

Ac*cel`er*om"e*ter (&?;), n. [Accelerate + -meter.] An apparatus for measuring the velocity imparted by gunpowder.

Ac*cend" (&?;), v. t. [L. accendere, accensum, to kindle; ad + candre to kindle (only in compounds); rel. to candre to be white, to gleam. See Candle.] To set on fire; to kindle. [Obs.] Fotherby.

Ac*cend`i*bil"i*ty (&?;), n. Capacity of being kindled, or of becoming inflamed; inflammability.

Ac*cend"i*ble (&?;), a. Capable of being inflamed or kindled; combustible; inflammable. Ure.

Ac*cen"sion (&?;), n. The act of kindling or the state of being kindled; ignition. Locke.

Ac*cen"sor (&?;), n. [LL., from p. p. accensus. See Accend.] (R. C. Ch.) One of the functionaries who light and trim the tapers.

Ac"cent` (&?;), n. [F. accent, L. accentus; ad + cantus a singing, canere to sing. See Cant.] 1. A superior force of voice or of articulative effort upon some particular syllable of a word or a phrase, distinguishing it from the others.

Many English words have two accents, the primary and the secondary; the primary being uttered with a greater stress of voice than the secondary; as in as′pira\'b6tion, where the chief stress is on the third syllable, and a slighter stress on the first. Some words, as an′tiap′o-plec\'b6tic, in- com′pre-hen′si-bil\'b6i-ty, have two secondary accents. See Guide to Pron., t=t= 30-46.

2. A mark or character used in writing, and serving to regulate the pronunciation; esp.: (a) a mark to indicate the nature and place of the spoken accent; (b) a mark to indicate the quality of sound of the vowel marked; as, the French accents.

In the ancient Greek the acute accent (′) meant a raised tone or pitch, the grave (`), the level tone or simply the negation of accent, the circumflex ( ~ or ^) a tone raised and then depressed. In works on elocution, the first is often used to denote the rising inflection of the voice; the second, the falling inflection; and the third (^), the compound or waving inflection. In dictionaries, spelling books, and the like, the acute accent is used to designate the syllable which receives the chief stress of voice.

3. Modulation of the voice in speaking; manner of speaking or pronouncing; peculiar or characteristic modification of the voice; tone; as, a foreign accent; a French or a German accent. "Beguiled you in a plain accent." Shak. "A perfect accent." Thackeray.

The tender accent of a woman's cry. Prior.

4. A word; a significant tone; (pl.) expressions in general; speech.

Winds! on your wings to Heaven her accents bear, Such words as Heaven alone is fit to hear. Dryden.

5. (Pros.) Stress laid on certain syllables of a verse.

6. (Mus.) (a) A regularly recurring stress upon the tone to mark the beginning, and, more feebly, the third part of the measure. (b) A special emphasis of a tone, even in the weaker part of the measure. (c) The rhythmical accent, which marks phrases and sections of a period. (d) The expressive emphasis and shading of a passage. J. S. Dwight.

7. (Math.) (a) A mark placed at the right hand of a letter, and a little above it, to distinguish magnitudes of a similar kind expressed by the same letter, but differing in value, as y′, y″. (b) (Trigon.) A mark at the right hand of a number, indicating minutes of a degree, seconds, etc.; as, 12′27″, i. e., twelve minutes twenty seven seconds. (c) (Engin.) A mark used to denote feet and inches; as, 6′ 10″ is six feet ten inches.

Ac*cent" (&?;), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Accented; p. pr. & vb. n. Accenting.] [OF. accenter, F. accentuer.]

1. To express the accent of (either by the voice or by a mark); to utter or to mark with accent.

2. To mark emphatically; to emphasize.

Ac"cent`less (&?;), a. Without accent.

Ac*cen"tor (&?;), n. [L. ad. + cantor singer, canere to sing.] 1. (Mus.) One who sings the leading part; the director or leader. [Obs.]

2. (Zoöl.) A genus of European birds (so named from their sweet notes), including the hedge warbler. In America sometimes applied to the water thrushes.

Ac*cen"tu*a*ble (&?;), a. Capable of being accented.

Ac*cen"tu*al (&?;), a. Of or pertaining to accent; characterized or formed by accent.

Ac*cen`tu*al"i*ty (&?;), n. The quality of being accentual.

Ac*cen"tu*al*ly (&?;), adv. In an accentual manner; in accordance with accent.

Ac*cen"tu*ate (&?;), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Accentuated (&?;); p. pr. & vb. n. Accentuating.] [LL. accentuatus, p. p. of accentuare, fr. L. accentus: cf. F. accentuer.] 1. To pronounce with an accent or with accents.

2. To bring out distinctly; to make prominent; to emphasize.

In Bosnia, the struggle between East and West was even more accentuated. London Times.

3. To mark with the written accent.

Ac*cen`tu*a"tion (&?;), n. [LL. accentuatio: cf. F. accentuation.] Act of accentuating; applications of accent. Specifically (Eccles. Mus.), pitch or modulation of the voice in reciting portions of the liturgy.

Ac*cept" (k*spt"), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Accepted; p. pr. & vb. n. Accepting.] [F. accepter, L. acceptare, freq. of accipere; ad + capere to take; akin to E. heave.]

1. To receive with a consenting mind (something offered); as, to accept a gift; -- often followed by of.

If you accept them, then their worth is great. Shak.

To accept of ransom for my son. Milton.

She accepted of a treat. Addison.

2. To receive with favor; to approve.

The Lord accept thy burnt sacrifice. Ps. xx. 3.

Peradventure he will accept of me. Gen. xxxii. 20.

3. To receive or admit and agree to; to assent to; as, I accept your proposal, amendment, or excuse.

4. To take by the mind; to understand; as, How are these words to be accepted?

5. (Com.) To receive as obligatory and promise to pay; as, to accept a bill of exchange. Bouvier.

6. In a deliberate body, to receive in acquittance of a duty imposed; as, to accept the report of a committee. [This makes it the property of the body, and the question is then on its adoption.]

To accept a bill (Law), to agree (on the part of the drawee) to pay it when due. -- To accept service (Law), to agree that a writ or process shall be considered as regularly served, when it has not been. -- To accept the person (Eccl.), to show favoritism. "God accepteth no man's person." Gal. ii. 6.

Syn. -- To receive; take; admit. See Receive.

Ac*cept", a. Accepted. [Obs.] Shak.

Ac*cept`a*bil"i*ty (&?;), n. [LL. acceptabilitas.] The quality of being acceptable; acceptableness. "Acceptability of repentance." Jer. Taylor.

Ac*cept"a*ble (-spt"*b'l; 277), a. [F. acceptable, L. acceptabilis, fr. acceptare.] Capable, worthy, or sure of being accepted or received with pleasure; pleasing to a receiver; gratifying; agreeable; welcome; as, an acceptable present, one acceptable to us.

Ac*cept"a*ble*ness (k*spt"*b'l*ns), n. The quality of being acceptable, or suitable to be favorably received; acceptability.

Ac*cept"a*bly, adv. In an acceptable manner; in a manner to please or give satisfaction.

Ac*cept"ance (&?;), n. 1. The act of accepting; a receiving what is offered, with approbation, satisfaction, or acquiescence; esp., favorable reception; approval; as, the acceptance of a gift, office, doctrine, etc.

They shall come up with acceptance on mine altar. Isa. lx. 7.

2. State of being accepted; acceptableness. "Makes it assured of acceptance." Shak.

3. (Com.) (a) An assent and engagement by the person on whom a bill of exchange is drawn, to pay it when due according to the terms of the acceptance. (b) The bill itself when accepted.

4. An agreeing to terms or proposals by which a bargain is concluded and the parties are bound; the reception or taking of a thing bought as that for which it was bought, or as that agreed to be delivered, or the taking possession as owner.

5. (Law) An agreeing to the action of another, by some act which binds the person in law.

What acts shall amount to such an acceptance is often a question of great nicety and difficulty. Mozley & W.

<! p. 11 !>

In modern law, proposal and acceptance are the constituent elements into which all contracts are resolved.

Acceptance of a bill of exchange, check, draft, or order, is an engagement to pay it according to the terms. This engagement is usually made by writing the word "accepted" across the face of the bill. Acceptance of goods, under the statute of frauds, is an intelligent acceptance by a party knowing the nature of the transaction.

6. Meaning; acceptation. [Obs.]

Acceptance of persons, partiality, favoritism. See under Accept.

Ac*cept"an*cy (&?;), n. Acceptance. [R.]

Here's a proof of gift, But here's no proof, sir, of acceptancy. Mrs. Browning.

Ac*cept"ant (&?;), a. Accepting; receiving.

Ac*cept"ant, n. An accepter. Chapman.

Ac`cep*ta"tion (&?;), n. 1. Acceptance; reception; favorable reception or regard; state of being acceptable. [Obs.]

This is saying worthy of all acceptation. 1 Tim. i. 15.

Some things . . . are notwithstanding of so great dignity and acceptation with God. Hooker.

2. The meaning in which a word or expression is understood, or generally received; as, term is to be used according to its usual acceptation.

My words, in common acceptation, Could never give this provocation. Gay.

Ac*cept"ed*ly (&?;), adv. In a accepted manner; admittedly.

Ac*cept"er (&?;), n. 1. A person who accepts; a taker.

2. A respecter; a viewer with partiality. [Obs.]

God is no accepter of persons. Chillingworth.

3. (Law) An acceptor.

Ac*cep`ti*la"tion (&?;), n. [L. acceptilatio entry of a debt collected, acquittance, fr. p. p. of accipere (cf. Accept) + latio a carrying, fr. latus, p. p. of ferre to carry: cf. F. acceptilation.] (Civil Law) Gratuitous discharge; a release from debt or obligation without payment; free remission.

Ac*cep"tion (&?;), n. [L. acceptio a receiving, accepting: cf. F. acception.] Acceptation; the received meaning. [Obs.]

Here the word "baron" is not to be taken in that restrictive sense to which the modern acception hath confined it. Fuller.

Acception of persons or faces (Eccl.), favoritism; partiality. [Obs.] Wyclif.

Ac*cept"ive (&?;), a. 1. Fit for acceptance.

2. Ready to accept. [Obs.] B. Jonson.

Ac*cept"or (#; 277), n. [L.] One who accepts; specifically (Law & Com.), one who accepts an order or a bill of exchange; a drawee after he has accepted.

Ac*cess" (#; 277), n. [F. accès, L. accessus, fr. accedere. See Accede.] 1. A coming to, or near approach; admittance; admission; accessibility; as, to gain access to a prince.

I did repel his letters, and denied His access to me. Shak.

2. The means, place, or way by which a thing may be approached; passage way; as, the access is by a neck of land. "All access was thronged." Milton.

3. Admission to sexual intercourse.

During coverture, access of the husband shall be presumed, unless the contrary be shown. Blackstone.

4. Increase by something added; addition; as, an access of territory. [In this sense accession is more generally used.]

I, from the influence of thy looks, receive Access in every virtue. Milton.

5. An onset, attack, or fit of disease.

The first access looked like an apoplexy. Burnet.

6. A paroxysm; a fit of passion; an outburst; as, an access of fury. [A Gallicism]

Ac*ces"sa*ri*ly (&?;), adv. In the manner of an accessary.

Ac*ces"sa*ri*ness, n. The state of being accessary.

Ac*ces"sa*ry (#; 277), a. Accompanying, as a subordinate; additional; accessory; esp., uniting in, or contributing to, a crime, but not as chief actor. See Accessory.

To both their deaths thou shalt be accessary. Shak.

Amongst many secondary and accessary causes that support monarchy, these are not of least reckoning. Milton.

Ac*ces"sa*ry (277), n.; pl. Accessaries (&?;). [Cf. Accessory and LL. accessarius.] (Law) One who, not being present, contributes as an assistant or instigator to the commission of an offense.

Accessary before the fact (Law), one who commands or counsels an offense, not being present at its commission. -- Accessary after the fact, one who, after an offense, assists or shelters the offender, not being present at the commission of the offense.

This word, as used in law, is spelt accessory by Blackstone and many others; but in this sense is spelt accessary by Bouvier, Burrill, Burns, Whishaw, Dane, and the Penny Cyclopedia; while in other senses it is spelt accessory. In recent text-books on criminal law the distinction is not preserved, the spelling being either accessary or accessory.

Ac*cess`i*bil"i*ty (&?;), n. [L. accessibilitas: cf. F. accessibilité.] The quality of being accessible, or of admitting approach; receptibility. Langhorne.

Ac*cess"i*ble (&?;), a. [L. accessibilis, fr. accedere: cf. F. accessible. See Accede.] 1. Easy of access or approach; approachable; as, an accessible town or mountain, an accessible person.

2. Open to the influence of; -- with to. "Minds accessible to reason." Macaulay.

3. Obtainable; to be got at.

The best information . . . at present accessible. Macaulay.

Ac*cess"i*bly (&?;), adv. In an accessible manner.

Ac*ces"sion (&?;), n. [L. accessio, fr. accedere: cf. F. accession. See Accede.] 1. A coming to; the act of acceding and becoming joined; as, a king's accession to a confederacy.

2. Increase by something added; that which is added; augmentation from without; as, an accession of wealth or territory.

The only accession which the Roman empire received was the province of Britain. Gibbon.

3. (Law) (a) A mode of acquiring property, by which the owner of a corporeal substance which receives an addition by growth, or by labor, has a right to the part or thing added, or the improvement (provided the thing is not changed into a different species). Thus, the owner of a cow becomes the owner of her calf. (b) The act by which one power becomes party to engagements already in force between other powers. Kent.

4. The act of coming to or reaching a throne, an office, or dignity; as, the accession of the house of Stuart; -- applied especially to the epoch of a new dynasty.

5. (Med.) The invasion, approach, or commencement of a disease; a fit or paroxysm.

Syn. -- Increase; addition; augmentation; enlargement.

Ac*ces"sion*al (&?;), a. Pertaining to accession; additional. [R.] Sir T. Browne.

Ac*ces"sive (&?;), a. Additional.

Ac`ces*so"ri*al (&?;), a. Of or pertaining to an accessory; as, accessorial agency, accessorial guilt.

Ac*ces"so*ri*ly (&?;), adv. In the manner of an accessory; auxiliary.

Ac*ces"so*ri*ness, n. The state of being accessory, or connected subordinately.

Ac*ces"so*ry (#; 277), a. [L. accessorius. See Access, and cf. Accessary.] Accompanying as a subordinate; aiding in a secondary way; additional; connected as an incident or subordinate to a principal; contributing or contributory; said of persons and things, and, when of persons, usually in a bad sense; as, he was accessory to the riot; accessory sounds in music.

Ash accents the antepenult; and this is not only more regular, but preferable, on account of easiness of pronunciation. Most orhoëpists place the accent on the first syllable.

Syn. -- Accompanying; contributory; auxiliary; subsidiary; subservient; additional; acceding.

Ac*ces"so*ry, n.; pl. Accessories (&?;). 1. That which belongs to something else deemed the principal; something additional and subordinate. "The aspect and accessories of a den of banditti." Carlyle.

2. (Law) Same as Accessary, n.

3. (Fine Arts) Anything that enters into a work of art without being indispensably necessary, as mere ornamental parts. Elmes.

Syn. -- Abettor; accomplice; ally; coadjutor. See Abettor.

||Ac*ciac`ca*tu"ra (&?;), n. [It., from acciaccare to crush.] (Mus.) A short grace note, one semitone below the note to which it is prefixed; -- used especially in organ music. Now used as equivalent to the short appoggiatura.

Ac"ci*dence (&?;), n. [A corruption of Eng. accidents, pl. of accident. See Accident, 2.] 1. The accidents, of inflections of words; the rudiments of grammar. Milton.

2. The rudiments of any subject. Lowell.

Ac"ci*dent (&?;), n. [F. accident, fr. L. accidens, -dentis, p. pr. of accidere to happen; ad + cadere to fall. See Cadence, Case.] 1. Literally, a befalling; an event that takes place without one's foresight or expectation; an undesigned, sudden, and unexpected event; chance; contingency; often, an undesigned and unforeseen occurrence of an afflictive or unfortunate character; a casualty; a mishap; as, to die by an accident.

Of moving accidents by flood and field. Shak.

Thou cam'st not to thy place by accident: It is the very place God meant for thee. Trench.

2. (Gram.) A property attached to a word, but not essential to it, as gender, number, case.

3. (Her.) A point or mark which may be retained or omitted in a coat of arms.

4. (Log.) (a) A property or quality of a thing which is not essential to it, as whiteness in paper; an attribute. (b) A quality or attribute in distinction from the substance, as sweetness, softness.

5. Any accidental property, fact, or relation; an accidental or nonessential; as, beauty is an accident.

This accident, as I call it, of Athens being situated some miles from the sea. J. P. Mahaffy.

6. Unusual appearance or effect. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Accident, in Law, is equivalent to casus, or such unforeseen, extraordinary, extraneous interference as is out of the range of ordinary calculation.

Ac`ci*den"tal (&?;), a. [Cf. F. accidentel, earlier accidental.] 1. Happening by chance, or unexpectedly; taking place not according to the usual course of things; casual; fortuitous; as, an accidental visit.

2. Nonessential; not necessary belonging; incidental; as, are accidental to a play.

Accidental chords (Mus.), those which contain one or more tones foreign to their proper harmony. -- Accidental colors (Opt.), colors depending on the hypersensibility of the retina of the eye for complementary colors. They are purely subjective sensations of color which often result from the contemplation of actually colored bodies. -- Accidental point (Persp.), the point in which a right line, drawn from the eye, parallel to a given right line, cuts the perspective plane; so called to distinguish it from the principal point, or point of view, where a line drawn from the eye perpendicular to the perspective plane meets this plane. -- Accidental lights (Paint.), secondary lights; effects of light other than ordinary daylight, such as the rays of the sun darting through a cloud, or between the leaves of trees; the effect of moonlight, candlelight, or burning bodies. Fairholt.

Syn. -- Casual; fortuitous; contingent; occasional; adventitious. -- Accidental, Incidental, Casual, Fortuitous, Contingent. We speak of a thing as accidental when it falls out as by chance, and not in the regular course of things; as, an accidental meeting, an accidental advantage, etc. We call a thing incidental when it falls, as it were, into some regular course of things, but is secondary, and forms no essential part thereof; as, an incremental remark, an incidental evil, an incidental benefit. We speak of a thing as casual, when it falls out or happens, as it were, by mere chance, without being prearranged or premeditated; as, a casual remark or encounter; a casual observer. An idea of the unimportant is attached to what is casual. Fortuitous is applied to what occurs without any known cause, and in opposition to what has been foreseen; as, a fortuitous concourse of atoms. We call a thing contingent when it is such that, considered in itself, it may or may not happen, but is dependent for its existence on something else; as, the time of my coming will be contingent on intelligence yet to be received.

Ac`ci*den"tal (&?;), n. 1. A property which is not essential; a nonessential; anything happening accidentally.

He conceived it just that accidentals . . . should sink with the substance of the accusation. Fuller.

2. pl. (Paint.) Those fortuitous effects produced by luminous rays falling on certain objects so that some parts stand forth in abnormal brightness and other parts are cast into a deep shadow.

3. (Mus.) A sharp, flat, or natural, occurring not at the commencement of a piece of music as the signature, but before a particular note.

Ac`ci*den"tal*ism (&?;), n. Accidental character or effect. Ruskin.

Ac`ci*den*tal"i*ty (&?;), n. The quality of being accidental; accidentalness. [R.] Coleridge.

Ac`ci*den"tal*ly (&?;), adv. In an accidental manner; unexpectedly; by chance; unintentionally; casually; fortuitously; not essentially.

Ac`ci*den"tal*ness, n. The quality of being accidental; casualness.