exacervation

From Latin exacervō (“to heap up exceedingly”), from acervus. See ex-, and acervate.

exacervation (usually uncountable, plural exacervations)

1. (obsolete) The act of heaping up.
   • 1832 February 2, “The Black List”, in The Bristol Job Nott, Or, Labouring Man's Friend, volume 8, page 29:

     You might as well try to persuade me that any other but Satan dictated the Black List; the very style and manner of the thing, the grandeur of the conception, the multiplication, the conglomeration, the exacervation, (as a body might say to speak plainly) the cumulative exacervation of lies, the heaping likes upon lies as the Titan's heaped Pelion upon Ossa, when they wanted to scale and insult the heavens; I say, all this condensation of falsehood, all this accumulation of falsehood, all this sublimity of falsehood, could only be attained by one pen in the universe, and proclaims the author Satan!

   • 1875, Godey's Magazine - Volume 91, page 434:

     Not that I would not plunge with avidity into the exacervation of botanical knowledge if I had the opportunity; but, if this chance be not marked out for me on 'the golden scroll of Fate, whereon are writ, in God's own hand allthings which happen', I am not debarrred the pleasure of enjoying their bright hues and delicious aromas, which is a greater privilege than many others have.

2. (medicine, uncommon) A recurrence of a symptom; paroxysm.
   • 1817, William Stoker, “Cases of Tumours within the Abdomen”, in Transactions of the Royal college of physicians of Ireland, volume 1, page 21:

     Recovery now progressively succeeded, as after the former eruptions of matter, for several days, during which his appetite improved, and his strength increased, so that he sat up by day, and rested pretty well at night, still slight evening exacervation continued, followed by night sweats; bowels costive requiring the daily administration of laxitives.

   • 1953, The Japanese Journal of Tuberculosis, volume 2, page 368:

     The typical immuno-pathologic appreciation of this reaction could be presented in a few cases of acute exacervations. In these cases the titers in the reaction ran down with the onset of exacervation and rose in higher titer than before exacervation after the period of about two weeks.

   • 2012, Sisir K. Chattopadhyay, Gynaecology for Undergraduates, page 122:

     Reproductive outflow tract obstruction can predispose to development of endometriosis, through exacervation of retrograde menstruation.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:exacervation.

• Nathan Bailey (1736) Dictionarium Britanicum: Or a More Compleat Universal Etymological English Dictionary Than Any Extant.
• “exacervation”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• James A. H. Murray et al., editors (1884–1928), “Exacervation”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC.