c. 1300, "charge (with an offense, fault, error, etc.), impugn, blame," from Old French acuser "to accuse, indict, reproach, blame" (13c., Modern French accuser), earlier "announce, report, disclose" (12c.), or directly from Latin accusare "to call to account, make complaint against, reproach, blame; bring to trial, prosecute, arraign indict," from the phrase ad causa, from ad "with regard to" (see ad-) + causa "a cause; a lawsuit" (see cause (n.)). "Accuse commonly, though not invariably, expresses something more formal and grave than charge" [Century Dictionary, 1902]. Related: Accused; accusing; accusingly.
grammatical case whose primary function is to express destination or goal of motion, mid-15c., from Anglo-French accusatif, Old French acusatif, or directly from Latin (casus) accusativus "(case) of accusing," from accusatus, past participle of accusare "to call to account, make complaint against" (see accuse). The Latin word was chosen somewhat inaccurately to translate Greek (ptōsis) aitiatikē "(case) of that which is caused" based on the similarity of the Greek word to the Greek verb aitiasthai "to accuse." Greek aitia is the root of both, and means "cause" as well as "accusation," hence the confusion of the Romans. A more correct translation would have been casus causativus. Typically it is the case of the direct object, but also sometimes denoting "motion towards." Nouns and adjectives in French, Spanish, and Italian, languages from which English has borrowed heavily, generally were formed from the accusative case of a Latin word. Related: Accusatival; accusatively.
also accurst, early 13c., acursede "being under a curse," past-participle adjective from obsolete verb acursen "pronounce a curse upon, excommunicate" (late 12c.), from a- intensive prefix (see a- (1)) + cursein "to curse" (see curse (v.)). The unetymological -c- is 15c., a mistaken Latinism in imitation of words in acc-. The weakened sense of "worthy of a curse, damnable" is from 1590s. Related: Accursedly; accursedness.
1610s, "done with care," from Latin accuratus "prepared with care, exact, elaborate," past participle of accurare "take care of," from ad "to" (see ad-) + curare "take care of" (see cure (n.1)). The notion of doing something carefully led to that of being precise (1650s). A stronger word than correct (adj.), weaker than exact (adj.). Related: Accurately; accurateness.
1520s, "to heap up" (transitive), from Latin accumulatus, past participle of accumulare "to heap up, amass," from ad "to," here perhaps emphatic (see ad-), + cumulare "heap up," from cumulus "heap" (from suffixed form of PIE root *keue- "to swell"). From 1759 in intransitive sense of "grow in size or number." Related: Accumulated; accumulating.
late 15c., "that which is heaped up, an accumulated mass," from Latin accumulationem (nominative accumulatio) "a heaping up," noun of action from past-participle stem of accumulare "to heap up, amass," from ad "to," here perhaps emphatic (see ad-), + cumulare "heap up," from cumulus "heap" (from suffixed form of PIE root *keue- "to swell"). Meaning "act of heaping up" is from c. 1600.