Also 4–6 -ite, -yte, 6–7 -itie, (5 -itee, -ytee, -flovite, 6 -flueity, Sc. -flwitie). [a. OF. superfluite (from 12th c.) = Pr. superfluitat, It. superfluità, Sp. superfluidad, Pg. -ade, ad. med.L. superfluitās, f. superfluus: see SUPERFLUE and -ITY.] The quality of being, or something that is, superfluous.
1. Superabundant supply, superabundance; the condition of there being (or of one’s having) more than enough; an instance of this.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Serm., Sel. Wks. II. 58. Þanne shulde man han etun and diffied, and delyvered him of superfluyte.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), VI. 465. Seculer lordes schulde take awey the superfluyte of here possessiouns, and ȝeve it to hem þat nedeþ.
c. 1400. Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton, 1483), III. ix. 55. Many other myght haue ben fed and fulfylled with theyr superfluytees.
1526. Tindale, Mark xii. 44. They all putt in of their superfluite: But she off her poverte cast in all that she had.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., II. ii. 20. To beare the Inuentorie of thy shirts, as one for superfluity, and one other, for vse.
1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., III. vi. 165. Some think private mens superfluity is a necessary evill in a State.
1647. N. Bacon, Disc. Govt. Eng., I. iv. (1739), 10. This Island hath from time to time been no other than as a Sewer to empty the superfluity of the German Nations.
1751. Johnson, Rambler, No. 104, ¶ 2. They … naturally laid out their superfluities upon pleasure.
1781. Cowper, Charity, 495. Her superfluity the poor supplies.
1803. Malthus, Popul., I. vi. 82. The common error of confounding a superfluity of inhabitants with great actual population.
1842. Loudon, Suburban Hort., 283. It receives too much sap, and ultimately perishes from superfluity, as the other did from insufficiency.
1876. Geo. Eliot, Dan. Der., xxxvi. The distasteful petty empire of her girlhood with its irksome lack of distinction and superfluity of sisters.
† b. Jocularly given as the ‘proper term’ for a company of nuns. Obs.
14[?]. Porkington MS. 10, in Trans. Philol. Soc. (1909), Suppl. 48. A Superflovite of nonnys.
2. The condition or fact of being more abundant or copious than is necessary; excessive quantity or number; esp. excess in diet or dress.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Prol., 436. Of his diete mesurable was he For it was of no superfluitee. Ibid. (c. 1386), Nun’s Pr. T., 107. This dreem … Cometh of greet superfluytee Of youre rede Colera.
c. 1450. Mirk’s Festial, 126/2. Þe herys of his berd þat comyth of superfluyte of humors of þe stomok.
1483. Caxton, G. de la Tour, e iv. The grete wast and superfluyte of her gownes.
c. 1532. Du Wes, Introd. Fr., in Palsgr., 898. Prolixite is superfluitie of wordes in declaryng a thynge.
1591. Spenser, Ruines Rome, xxiii. In a vicious bodie, grose disease Soone growes through humours superfluitie.
1671. Dryden, Even. Love, Pref. a 2. I think there’s no folly so great in any Poet of our Age as the superfluity and wast of wit was in some of our predecessors.
1733. Cheyne, Eng. Malady, III. iv. (1734), 304. Superfluity will always produce Redundancy, whether it be of Phlegm or Choler.
1820. Lamb, Elia, Ser. I. South-sea House. Sums … set down with formal superfluity of ciphers.
1862. Darwin, Orchids, vi. 276. Thus the act of fertilization is completed, and there is no superfluity in the means employed.
† b. In, of, to superfluity: in or to excess. Obs.
c. 1430. Wyclif’s Bible, 1 Chron., Prol. Siche thingis that weren addid to of superfluyte, he markyde with litil ȝerdis.
c. 1440. Jacob’s Well, 136. Ȝif þou haue a coueytous loue to superfluyte of temperall ryches.
1563. Bullein, Bulwarke, Bk. Sick Men, 51. If there be twoo humours, equall aboundyng together, extremely in superfluite.
c. Unnecessary action or procedure. arch.
Cf. SUPERFLUOUS a. 2 b.
c. 1420. ? Lydg., Assembly of Gods, 1824. To make exposicion therof, new or olde, Were but superfluyte.
1905. R. Garnett, W. Shakespeare, 85.
| So crammed the Court is with particulars, | |
| More to adduce were superfluity. |
3. A thing or part that is in excess of what is necessary, or that can be dispensed with. Chiefly pl.
c. 1400. trans. Secreta Secret., Gov. Lordsh., 77. Whenne superfluytes waxen in hem, þes tokenynges sewen.
1474. Caxton, Chesse, III. i. (1883), 76. A crokyd hachet for to cutte of the superfluytees of the vignes and trees.
1553. Eden, Treat. Newe Ind. (Arb.), 37, marg. Ryches and superfluites contemned.
1611. Bible, Transl. Pref., ¶ 3. What thanks had he for cutting off the superfluities of the lawes?
1628. T. Spencer, Logick, 189. The superfluities of a definition are 6.
1650. Bulwer, Anthropomet., 221. Like a superfluity it is every moneth driven forth the wombe.
1773. Johnson, Lett. to Boswell, 24 [22] Feb. Some superfluities I have expunged, and some faults I have corrected,… but the main fabrick of the work remains as it was.
1776. Adam Smith, W. N., I. xi. III. I. 239. When we are in want of necessaries we must part with all superfluities.
1860. Emerson, Cond. Life, Culture, Wks. (Bohn), II. 374. Self-denial … that saves on superfluities and spends on essentials.
† 4. Action or conduct characterized by or exhibiting excess or extravagance; immoderate indulgence or expenditure; an instance of this. Obs.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Pard. T., 9. They … eten also and drynken ouer hir myght, Thurgh which they doon the deuel sacrifise … By superfluytee abhom ynable.
c. 1425. St. Mary of Oignies, II. iv. in Anglia, VIII. 161/32. Whan a man fleeþ superfluyte, [he] sumtyme fallith into chynchery.
1432–50. trans. Higden (Rolls), IV. 51. He … ȝafe hym to ydelnes, lecchery, and to superfluites, wastenge nyȝhtes in lechery and synne.
1523. Ld. Berners, Froiss., I. ccxi. 252. He showed many thynges to fall on the prelates of the Churche, for the great superfluitie and pryde that was as than vsed amonge theym.
1541. Test. Ebor. (Surtees), VI. 139. I will that … no superfluyte be mayde at my buriall.
1600. Holland, Livy, XXXIV. iii. 854. That we might not be stinted and gaged in our excessive expenses, in our dissolute profusion, in costly vanities and superfluities.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., II. xxx. 179. They… whom superfluity, or sloth carrieth after their sensuall pleasures.
1801. Farmer’s Mag., Jan., 82. A rigid economy of our resources,… a retrenchment of every superfluity on the part of the opulent.
