a. Now rare or Obs. [f. L. supervacāneus, f. super- SUPER- III + vacāre to be empty or void: see -EOUS. Cf. It., Sp., Pg. supervacaneo.] Vainly added over and above what is essential; superfluous, redundant.
c. 1555. Harpsfield, Divorce Hen. VIII. (Camden), 146. For the avoiding of supervacaneous tediousness we will cut off all such endless matters.
1641. J. Trappe, Theol. Theol., viii. 313. Account not any part of this venerable Volume to be superfluous or super-vacaneous.
1684. trans. Bonet’s Merc. Compit., VI. 217. As much supervacaneous humour as they had lost, so much new strength they had acquired.
1772. Nugent, Hist. Fr. Gerund, II. 85. Conjectural argument is supervacaneous when the words of the oracle are clear.
1825. Bentham, Offic. Apt. Maximized, Indications, Postscr. (1830), 23. Desire is sufficient: accomplishment, or anything like an approach to it, supervacaneous!
1838. Beard, in E. G. Holland, Mem. J. Badger, xvii. (1854), 348. While others contend about the supervacaneous part of religion.
Hence Supervacaneously adv.; Supervacaneousness.
1657. W. Morice, Coena quasi Κοινὴ, xii. 178. They might have … spared supervacaneously to shew us the difference.
1730. Bailey (fol.), Supervacaneousness.
