What is superfluous for kids
What is superfluous for kids
Word of the Week: Ephemeral, Irrigate, Superfluous
August 5, 2021, 4:43 pm 7.9k Views
This year, why not expand your vocabulary one thesaurus section at a time?
Word of the Week: Ephemeral
How to say it:
Ephemeral [ ih-fem-er-uhl ]
What it means:
2. lasting one day only
an ephemeral fever
Where it comes from
First recorded in 1570–80; from Greek ephḗmer(os) “short-lived, lasting but a day,” equivalent to ep-,variant of the preposition and prefix epí, epi- “on; over; near; before” + hēmér(a) “day” + -os adjective suffix + -al adjective suffix;
Examples of debacle in a Sentence
There’s no ephemeral rush of terror from scaling icy chimneys or descending hillsides.
Honk introduces a real-time, ephemeral messaging app aimed at Gen Z — Instead of sending texts off into the void and hoping for a response, friends on Honk communicate via messages that are shown live as you type.
Word of the Week: Irrigate
How to say it:
Irrigate [ ir-i-geyt ]
What it means:
Where it comes from
1605–15; 1 + rigā- (stem of rigāre to provide with water, soak) + -tus past participle suffix
Examples of debacle in a Sentence
Elders in the area say that farmers stopped using its waters to irrigate their crops in the 1980s when an oil company began operating upstream.
The proposed route ran underneath the waterway, which she uses to irrigate her 500 acres of corn and soybeans.
Word of the Week: Superfluous
How to say it:
Superflous [ soo–pur-floo-uhs ]
What it means:
Where it comes from
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SUPERFLUOUS
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
| IPA (US): |  |
Dictionary entry overview: What does superfluous mean?
1. serving no useful purpose; having no excuse for being 
2. more than is needed, desired, or required
Familiarity information: SUPERFLUOUS used as an adjective is rare.
Dictionary entry details
Serving no useful purpose; having no excuse for being
worthless (lacking in usefulness or value)
More than is needed, desired, or required
surplus cheese distributed to the needy
I abandon to you, then, what is absolutely superfluous to me.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
“It would be superfluous to drive us mad, my dear Watson,” said he.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
And so it went, the inexorable elimination of the superfluous.
(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)
This young man has left prints upon the stair-carpet which made it quite superfluous for me to ask to see those which he had made in the room.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Worthless, damaged, defective, superfluous or effluent material from industrial operations.
(Industrial Waste, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)
“Your repentance,” I said, is now superfluous.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
From his mother he had inherited the heavier proportions of the dog, so that he weighed, without any fat and without an ounce of superfluous flesh, over ninety pounds.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
I remember that I thought it, in form, more like a riding-habit with the superfluous skirt cut off, than anything else.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Rendered curious by this new direction of ideas, I talked with Johansen last night—the first superfluous words with which he has favoured me since the voyage began.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
He was in perfect condition, without an ounce of superfluous flesh, and the one hundred and fifty pounds that he weighed were so many pounds of grit and virility.
(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)
Difference between ‘Redundant’ and ‘Superfluous’
(I made a search for this question on this forum but surprisingly did not find related questions. Which is odd because surely this question is asked often.)
First, the sentence I’m trying to use redundant/superfluous in:
From what I know, fiction is created from fantasy by people you call authors. At the risk of sounding discourteous let me say that I do not trust fantasies. Life is not a fabrication played out on stage. This is why I feel people who write fiction are redundant. I myself never speak of things I have not experienced firsthand.
I was told that ‘superfluous’ would be a better word choice in place of ‘redundant’ because using ‘redundant’ would suggest that the speaker is scornful of only those ‘authors’ who are ‘extra’ when he is scornful of ‘all’ authors. But using ‘superfluous’ here sounds simply odd to me.
OED gives the definitions of the two words as:
This site explains them as:
Superfluous (from Latin, and literally meaning “overflowing” — the second part of the compound is related to fluid) means “extra, more than is necessary.”
Redundant has the same literal meaning as superfluous — the second part of the compound is related to wave — and the identical basic connotation, though it also has the senses of repetition, abundance, or extravagance, or duplication as a safety measure.
The more I try to dig into the meanings and connotations of these words the more I’m left confused. Any inputs on this?
6 Answers 6
«Redundant» involves repetition. In the following example, there are two examples of redundancy: «This blue, azure shirt is torn and ripped.» Blue and azure are redundant, and torn and ripped are redundant. Note that these redundancy pairs do not include words that are exactly synonymous, but which are close enough in meaning that one would usually consider them redundant. Two points here: 1. Neither word in such a pair is necessarily the redundant one; either one can be considered redundant, depending on which one you consider to be the more important, useful, or accurate one in the given context. Commonly, the second word is considered the redundant one, but that is merely because the first word got a chance to establish itself before the second one came along; if you were revising the text, you might choose to keep the second, not the first. 2. The same word repeated («this blue blue shirt») is an example of redundancy, but this is usually done for emphasis, or for poetic effect, and so is seldom saddled with the accusation of redundancy. Thus, «redundant» does tend to carry the implication of an unnecessary repetition.
A tip: To help you remember this, note that «redundant» begins with «re,» as in «repetition.» That piece of these words means «again.»
«Superfluous,» on the other hand, refers to something that is more than what is necessary. Think of water running over the rim of a glass when you continue to pour water into it beyond its capacity. The water over- (super) flows (fluous). Often something superfluous is so because it is needlessly repetitive, and this confuses the picture a bit. But in my opinion, «superfluous» is better used when the element is not repetitive, but is genuinely not needed, as in this example: «After George embedded the fence post in thirty pounds of concrete buried underground, the brick he balanced atop the post to hold it down was superfluous.»
superfluous
Смотреть что такое «superfluous» в других словарях:
Superfluous — Su*per flu*ous, a. [L. superfluus overflowing; super over, above + fluere to flow. See
superfluous — I adjective additional, adscititious, dispensable, duplicate, excess, excrescent, expendable, extra, extravagant, inessential, inordinate, lavish, luxuriant, luxurious, more than enough, more than sufficient, needless, overflowing, overmuch,… … Law dictionary
superfluous — [sə pʉr′flo͞o əs, so͞opʉr′flo͞o əs] adj. [L superfluus < superfluere, to overflow: see SUPER & FLUCTUATE] 1. being more than is needed, useful, or wanted; surplus; excessive 2. not needed; unnecessary; irrelevant [a superfluous remark] 3. Obs … English World dictionary
superfluous — early 15c. (earlier superflue, late 14c.), from L. superfluus unnecessary, lit. overflowing, from superfluere to overflow, from super over (see SUPER (Cf. super )) + fluere to flow (see FLUENT (Cf. fluent)) … Etymology dictionary
superfluous — [adj] extra, unnecessary abounding, de trop, dispensable, excess, excessive, exorbitant, expendable, extravagant, extreme, gratuitous, inessential, in excess, inordinate, lavish, leftover, needless, nonessential, overflowing, overmuch, pleonastic … New thesaurus
superfluous — ► ADJECTIVE ▪ unnecessary, especially through being more than enough. DERIVATIVES superfluity noun (pl. superfluities) superfluously adverb. ORIGIN Latin superfluus, from fluere to flow … English terms dictionary
superfluous — [[t]suːpɜ͟ː(r)fluəs[/t]] ADJ GRADED Something that is superfluous is unnecessary or is no longer needed. My presence at the afternoon s proceedings was superfluous. I rid myself of many superfluous belongings and habits that bothered me. Syn:… … English dictionary
superfluous — su|per|flu|ous [ su pɜrfluəs ] adjective FORMAL not needed or wanted: UNNECESSARY: Charlie gave him a look that made words superfluous. They were superfluous to requirements (=not required). ╾ su|per|flu|ous|ly adverb … Usage of the words and phrases in modern English
superfluous — adjective 1) superfluous material Syn: surplus (to requirements), nonessential, redundant, unneeded, excess, extra, (to) spare, remaining, unused, left over, in excess, waste Ant: necessary, essential … Thesaurus of popular words
superfluous — adjective /suːˈpɜːflu.əs,sjʊˈpɜːflu.əs,suːˈpɝːflu.əs/ in excess of what is required or sufficient With a full rain suit, I think carrying an umbrella is superfluous. Syn: excessive, extraneous, extra, pleonastic, supernumerary, surplus … Wiktionary
superfluous
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Тематики
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См. также в других словарях:
Superfluous — Su*per flu*ous, a. [L. superfluus overflowing; super over, above + fluere to flow. See
superfluous — I adjective additional, adscititious, dispensable, duplicate, excess, excrescent, expendable, extra, extravagant, inessential, inordinate, lavish, luxuriant, luxurious, more than enough, more than sufficient, needless, overflowing, overmuch,… … Law dictionary
superfluous — [sə pʉr′flo͞o əs, so͞opʉr′flo͞o əs] adj. [L superfluus < superfluere, to overflow: see SUPER & FLUCTUATE] 1. being more than is needed, useful, or wanted; surplus; excessive 2. not needed; unnecessary; irrelevant [a superfluous remark] 3. Obs … English World dictionary
superfluous — early 15c. (earlier superflue, late 14c.), from L. superfluus unnecessary, lit. overflowing, from superfluere to overflow, from super over (see SUPER (Cf. super )) + fluere to flow (see FLUENT (Cf. fluent)) … Etymology dictionary
superfluous — [adj] extra, unnecessary abounding, de trop, dispensable, excess, excessive, exorbitant, expendable, extravagant, extreme, gratuitous, inessential, in excess, inordinate, lavish, leftover, needless, nonessential, overflowing, overmuch, pleonastic … New thesaurus
superfluous — ► ADJECTIVE ▪ unnecessary, especially through being more than enough. DERIVATIVES superfluity noun (pl. superfluities) superfluously adverb. ORIGIN Latin superfluus, from fluere to flow … English terms dictionary
superfluous — [[t]suːpɜ͟ː(r)fluəs[/t]] ADJ GRADED Something that is superfluous is unnecessary or is no longer needed. My presence at the afternoon s proceedings was superfluous. I rid myself of many superfluous belongings and habits that bothered me. Syn:… … English dictionary
superfluous — su|per|flu|ous [ su pɜrfluəs ] adjective FORMAL not needed or wanted: UNNECESSARY: Charlie gave him a look that made words superfluous. They were superfluous to requirements (=not required). ╾ su|per|flu|ous|ly adverb … Usage of the words and phrases in modern English
superfluous — adjective 1) superfluous material Syn: surplus (to requirements), nonessential, redundant, unneeded, excess, extra, (to) spare, remaining, unused, left over, in excess, waste Ant: necessary, essential … Thesaurus of popular words
superfluous — adjective /suːˈpɜːflu.əs,sjʊˈpɜːflu.əs,suːˈpɝːflu.əs/ in excess of what is required or sufficient With a full rain suit, I think carrying an umbrella is superfluous. Syn: excessive, extraneous, extra, pleonastic, supernumerary, surplus … Wiktionary