a. [f. L. cumulāt-, ppl. stem of cumulāre (see CUMULATE) + -IVE. Cf. mod.F. cumulatif, -ive.]
† 1. Such as is formed by accumulation or heaping on (as opposed to organic growth). Obs.
1605. Bacon, Adv. Learn., II. v. § 1. As for knowledge which man receiveth by teaching, it is cumulative and not original; as in a water that besides his own spring-head is fed with other springs and streams.
2. Constituted by or arising from accumulation, or the accession of successive portions or particulars; acquiring or increasing in force or cogency by successive additions, as cumulative argument, evidence, force.
1668. Liberty of Conscience the Magistrates Interest, 4. He has not only the common tye of a Subject upon him, for his protection as a man, but the cumulative obligation, and thanks to pay for his Indulgence.
a. 1676. Hale, Hist. Placit. Cor., xiv. (T.). Among many cumulative treasons charged upon the late earl of Strafford.
1823. Keble, Serm., ii. (1848), 37. The argument from the authority of implicit believers is cumulative: i. e. a fresh argument is added every time a new instance is observed of a man’s finding his happiness in Christianity.
1841–4. Emerson, Ess., Self-reliance, Wks. (Bohn), I. 25. Always scorn appearances, and you always may. The force of character is cumulative.
1849. Murchison, Siluria, xx. 500. We have … cumulative evidence to prove the wide-spread diffusion of the same types.
1868. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), II. ix. 432. There are several circumstances which have together a kind of cumulative force.
b. Cumulative medicine.
1876. W. Begbie, Bk. Med. Inform. & Advice, App. 251. Digitalis is what is called a cumulative medicine: its effects are sometimes not immediately produced; but each successive dose remaining in the system, these may be seen even after the medicine is discontinued.
3. Sc. Law. Of jurisdiction: Concurrent, as opposed to privative or exclusive.
1746–7. Act 20 Geo. II., c. 43 § 27. The jurisdiction hereby reserved to such Corporation … shall be … taken to be cumulative only.
1754. Erskine, Princ. Sc. Law, I. ii. § 6. Jurisdiction is either privative or cumulative…. Cumulative, otherwise called concurrent, is that which may be exercised by any of two or more courts in the same cause.
4. That tends to accumulate.
1873. H. Spencer, Stud. Sociol., xiii. 324. Certain actions which go on in the first are cumulative, instead of being, as in the second dissipative.
5. Cumulative vote, or system of voting: a system of voting, where there are several representatives, in which each voter has as many votes as there are representatives, and may accumulate them upon one candidate or distribute them over any number of candidates; a system introduced in connection with the School Board elections in Great Britain.
1880. McCarthy, Own Times, IV. lix. 294–5. The School Boards … the principle of the cumulative vote was tested for the first time in their elections.
1886. Morley, W. R. Greg, Crit. Misc. III. 255. Lord Grey’s prescription … consisted of the following ingredients:—the cumulative vote; not fewer than three seats to each constituency [etc.].
