Accumulator

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /əˈkjum.jəˌleɪ.tɚ/

Definitions

1. A device designed to store energy for later use ; an entity that gathers or amasses items or quantities progressively
2. An apparatus that holds and releases stored energy when needed ; someone or something that gradually collects or accumulates things over time
3. A mechanism used to retain power, energy, or charge ; an individual or object that steadily acquires or increases in amount or number

Etymology: The word's core idea is literal: a heap. Latin "cumulus" meant a heap or pile, and "accumulare" (formed by adding "ad-", "to", to "cumulare", "to heap up") meant to pile things up toward a point. From that verb came "accumulātor", a doer of the piling-up, which English took over as "accumulator". The two modern senses grew from the same act of gathering. The sense of a person or thing that gathers quantities progressively is the older and more direct inheritance of the Latin agent. The sense of a device that stores energy developed later, once the idea of a store of charge or power could be held in a container, and it is this sense that gives the word its everyday technical meaning, from mechanical springs to electrical cells and, in computing, to the register that collects running totals.

Synonyms: battery, storage device, reservoir, container, accumulation