necessary, a. and n.
(ˈnɛsɪsərɪ)
Forms: 4–7 necessarie (5 -ari, 6 -arye, nessarre, nessesary, 7 nesesary), 4– necessary.
[ad. L. necessārius, f. necesse needful: see -ary. Cf. It. necessario, Sp. necesario, F. nécessaire (13th c.). See also necessaire a., necessar a. In early use the pl. form of the adj. sometimes occurs.]
A. adj. I. 1. a. Indispensable, requisite, essential, needful; that cannot be done without. Also const. to or for (a person or thing) and with inf. Phr. necessary evil.
In 16th and early 17th c. use freq. approaching the sense of ‘useful’ without being absolutely indispensable.
| 1382 Wyclif Eccl. xxxix. 31 The bygynnyng of necessarie thing to the lif of men. 1387–8 T. Usk Test. Love iii. iii. (Skeat) l. 42 Bicause this mater is good and necessary to declare. a 1400–50 Alexander 125 Þen takis to him tresour..And oþire necessari notis as nedis to his craftis. 1462 Paston Lett. II. 16 Remembryng divers maters..necessary for the wele of his sowle. 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §1 Than is the ploughe the most necessaryest instrumente that an husbande can occupy. 1547 W. Baldwin Treat. Morall Phylosophie iii. xv. sig. O5v A woman is a necessary euyll. 1583 Golding Calvin on Deut. cxxvi. 775 Were there no greater and necessarier things to speak of than young birdes? 1617 Moryson Itin. i. 174, I prepared all things necessary for my journey. c 1645 Howell Lett. (1650) I. 329 They advance trade wheresoever they come,..and so are permitted as necessary evils. 1671 Milton Samson 90 Since light so necessary is to life. 1704 Swift T. Tub ii, Obedience was absolutely necessary, and yet Shoulder-Knots appeared extremely requisite. 1750 Johnson Rambler No. 24 ¶2 What more can be necessary to the regulation of life..? 1765 Johnson in Shakes. Plays I. Pref. p. lxix, Notes are often necessary, but they are necessary evils. 1776 T. Paine Common Sense 1 Society in every state is a blessing, but Government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one. 1815 C'tess Granville Let. 18 July (1894) I. 54 The humiliation of now having him is great, but he is reasonable about it and thinks it a necessary evil. 1832 H. Martineau Life in Wilds iv. 47 Food is the most necessary of all things. 1863 Country Gentleman 16 Apr. 254/3 The manuring of the vines is regarded as ‘a necessary evil’. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) IV. 12 Change and alternation are necessary for the mind as well as for the body. 1927 E. O'Neill Marco Millions i. iv. 51 Don't waste pity. Her kind are necessary evils. |
b. it is necessary that or with inf. Also ellipt. with omission of the complement.
| c 1386 Chaucer Manciple's Prol. 95 It is necessarie..good drink we with us carie. c 1460 Fortescue Abs. & Lim. Mon. iv. (1885) 118 Trewly it is veray necessarie that thay be alwey grete. a 1533 Ld. Berners Huon lxxxiv. 264 It is not necessarye to requyre me of this. 1582 N. Lichefield tr. Castanheda's Conq. E. Ind. i. lxv. 133 We fought in open fielde, where it was necessarie there should be many. 1649 Bp. Reynolds Hosea vi. 91 It is necessarie for us to draw nigh unto God. a 1699 A. Halkett Autobiog. (Camden) 2 Wch. I have by mee to produce if itt were nesesary. 1747 Wesley Prim. Physick (1762) p. xvii, It was necessary to have a variety. 1776 Trial of Nundocomar 27/2 Is it necessary that such a writing as this be confirmed by witness? 1841 Lane Arab. Nts. I. 86 When he had continued this exercise as long as was necessary. |
† c. Commodious, convenient. Obs. rare.
| 1540–1 Elyot Image Gov. 40 b, He caused..the houses to be not onely clensed, but also made more ornate and necessary. 1547–8 in E. Green Somerset Chantries (1888) 25 The same Scolehowse..no doubte is [the] most bewtyfull and most necessarie place of all that shire. |
d. necessary condition = condition n. 4; cf. sufficient condition.
| 1817 Coleridge Biog. Lit. I. ix. 136, I began to ask myself; is a system of philosophy..possible? If possible, what are its necessary conditions? 1859 Mill On Liberty i. 9 The consent of the community..was made a necessary condition to some of the more important acts of the governing power. 1949 A. Pap Elem. Analytic Philos. x. 212 If a sufficient condition is complex—as it almost invariably is—then it may consist in a conjunction of necessary conditions. 1965 E. J. Lemmon Beginning Logic i. 28 Whenever it is the case that only if P then Q, P is a necessary condition for Q. |
2. Of persons, esp. servants: Rendering (certain) necessary or useful services; in later use only necessary woman (now arch.).
| 1425 Rolls of Parlt. IV. 306/1 Clerks necessaries beyng in ye service of ye Prince. 1501 in Letters Rich. III. & Hen. VII (Rolls) I. App. A. vii, That no persone.., except he be a necessary officier, ride befor out of the company of the said princesse. 1599 Nashe Lenten Stuffe (1871) 60 Those that be his stewards, or necessariest men about him. 1607 Shakes. Cor. ii. i. 91 You are well vnderstood to bee a perfecter gyber for the Table, then a necessary Bencher in the Capitoll. 1679–88 Secr. Serv. Money Chas. & Jas. (Camden) 194 Late necessary woman to King Charles the Second. 1711 Swift Jrnl. to Stella 9 Nov., I want a necessary woman strangely; I am as helpless as an elephant. 1719 De Foe Crusoe ii. (Globe) 325 A most necessary handy Fellow as could be desir'd. 1762 Chron. in Ann. Reg. 98/2 Attendants on..the prince of Wales,..Wet nurse,..Dry nurse,..Necessary woman. 1899 Tit-Bits 1 Apr. 10/2 The most interesting member of all the [Queen's] kitchen staff is, perhaps, the ‘necessary woman’. |
3. necessary house, a privy. So necessary place, necessary stool, necessary vault. Now dial.
| 1609 N. Field Woman is Weathercock iv. i, She shew'd me to a necessarie vault. 1611 ― Amends for Ladies ii. iv, I met her in the necessary house. 1667 Primatt City & C. Build. 93 The digging of Vaults for the Necessary-house. 1697 C'tess D Aunoy's Trav. (1706) 232 There being no necessary places in their Houses. 1761 Nicholls in Phil. Trans. LII. 267 He appeared to have just come from his necessary-stool. 1789 Brand Newcastle I. 176 In the wall of the western front have been several necessary-houses. 1828 Bentham Mem. & Corr. Wks. 1843 X. 582 Written pleadings are of no more use in a court than they would be in a necessary-house. |
4. Of actions: Requiring or needful to be done.
| 1601 Shakes. Jul. C. ii. i. 178 This shall make Our purpose Necessary, and not Enuious. 1655 S. Ashe Funeral Serm. Gataker 49 Constant retirement..made the choice..a necessary act of prudence. 1716 Jeffery Pref. Sir T. Browne's Chr. Mor., Where an Oversight had made the Addition or Transposition of some words necessary. 1771 Junius Lett. lxiv. (1788) 336 In this sense the levy of ship-money..was not necessary. 1819 Shelley Cenci iii. ii. 8 Still doubting if that deed Be just which is most necessary. 1858 Greener Gunnery 156 We never saw it done,..but the Doctor decribes it as a necessary proceeding. |
II. 5. a. Inevitably determined or fixed by predestination or the operation of natural laws; happening or existing by an inherent necessity.
| c 1374 Chaucer Boeth. v. pr. iv. (1868) 164 Þilke þinges þat ne han non endes and bytidynges necessaryes. 1387–8 T. Usk Test. Love iii. iv. (Skeat) l. 40 God than..al these thinges, as they arne spontanye or necessarie, seeth. 1597 Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, iii. i. 87 By the necessarie forme of this, King Richard might create a perfect guesse. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. ii. ii. iii. (1651) 258 Columbus did not find out America by chance:..it was contingent to him, but necessary to God. a 1676 Hale Prim. Orig. Man. (1677) 37 Otherwise we must of necessity make all successes in the World purely natural and necessary. 1720 Waterland Eight Serm. Pref. 20 We are not indeed to expect the Word necessary existence (a School Term, and none of the most proper). 1784 Cowper Task ii. 192 Of causes, how they work By necessary laws their sure effects. 1826 Whately Logic 290 It is ‘mathematically Necessary’ that two sides of a triangle should be greater than the third. 1875 E. White Life in Christ iii. xxiii. (1878) 339 The identification..of the Necessary Being with the vanishing phantasmal shadow. |
b. Of mental concepts or processes: Inevitably resulting from the constitution of things or of the mind itself.
| 1551 T. Wilson Logike (1580) 31 b, The other called infallible reasons, or rather necessarie argumentes, must by all reason be euermore true. 1628 T. Spencer Logick 157 A necessary axiome, is when it is alwayes true, and cannot be false. 1656 Stanley Hist. Philos. v. (1701) 180/1 Syllogism [is divided] into the Apodeictick, which concerneth necessary ratiocination [etc.]. 1705 Stanhope Paraphr. II. 264 The Connexion..is not so close and necessary, as will warrant us from the Former certainly to infer the Latter. 1856 Ferrier Inst. Metaph. 20 A necessary truth or law of reason is a truth the opposite of which is inconceivable. 1878 J. Cook Transcendentalism i. 19 The ideas of space and time are called in philosophy necessary ideas. |
c. Inevitably determined or produced by a previous condition of things.
| 1860 Westcott Introd. Study Gosp. i. (ed. 5) 78 Active speculation followed as a necessary result. 1872 J. L. Sanford Estim. Eng. Kings 336 He was quite as incapable..of perceiving its necessary issues. |
6. Of actions: a. Determined by force of nature or circumstances.
| 1387–8 T. Usk Test. Love iii. iv. (Skeat) l. 27 If a man wol sinne, it is necessarye him to sinne. 1706 Stanhope Paraphr. III. 529 The first Motions of Anger seem to be mechanical and necessary. 1855 Abp. Thomson Laws Th. §122 The necessary action, where all the motives are on one side. |
b. Enforced by another; compulsory.
| 1655 Fuller Ch. Hist. ix. vi. §51 In the following words, he taketh away all necessary Oaths (and leaveth none but voluntary). 1677 W. Hughes Man of Sin ii. vii. 115 Such Penance, were it voluntary, deserveth greatly to be admired at; but when 'tis necessary, and upon a Prince, is worthy of utmost detestation. |
7. Of agents: a. Impelled by the natural force of circumstances upon the will; having no independent volition.
| 1690 Locke Hum. Und. ii. xxi. §13 Agents that have no Thought, no Volition at all, are in every thing necessary Agents. 1774 Wesley Wks. (1872) X. 462 They all agree, that man is not a free but a necessary agent. 1871 R. H. Hutton Ess. (1877) I. 53 That a necessary being should give birth to a being with any amount, however limited, of moral freedom. |
b. Compelled by practical necessity, or by some law or regulation.
| 1724 Swift Drapier's Lett. iii. Wks. 1751 VIII. 337 The Necessary Receivers [of Wood's halfpence] will be Losers of two Thirds in their Salaries or Pay. a 1768 Erskine Inst. Sc. Law (1773) 146 Servants are..either necessary or voluntary. Those may be called necessary whom the law obliges to work. 1880 Muirhead Gaius ii. 153 A necessary heir is a slave instituted with gift of freedom; so called because in every case, whether he will or not, he straightway on the testator's death becomes free and heir. 1893 Fowler Hist. C.C.C. (O.H.S.) 42 The ‘necessary regents’ among the Masters, that is, those Masters of Arts who had not yet completed two years from the date of that degree. |
III. † 8. [After L. use.] Closely related or connected; intimate. Obs. rare.
| 1382 Wyclif Job vi. 13 There is not helpe to me in me; also my necessarie men [L. necessarii] wenten awei fro me. 1655 Stanley Hist. Philos. iii. (1701) 81/2 Such as seek after Sordid Gain, and neglect their necessary Friends. |
B. n.
1. That which is indispensable; an essential or requisite: a. in pl.
| a 1340 Hampole Psalter xxxiii. 9 God..hight til his lufers þaire necessaris. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xx. 248 Ȝe shal haue bred and clothes, And other necessaries i-nowe. 1415 E.E. Wills (1882) 23, I woll that..my wyfe haue all the necessaries. 1489 Caxton Faytes of A. i. xii. 31 Shot and all other deffensable necessaryes. 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §19 To cary wodde and other necessaryes. 1592 Greene Conny Catch iii. 28 He came vp to London to prouide himselfe of such necessaries as the Cuntry is not vsually stored withall. 1663 Gerbier Counsel 25 The materials, and all necessarys as they are brought in. 1711 Steele Spect. No. 114 ¶5 The Care of Superfluities is a Vice no less extravagant, than the Neglect of Necessaries. 1788 Priestley Lect. Hist. iii. xv. 124 The articles of their expence must be the necessaries of life. 1818 Cruise Digest (ed. 2) VI. 345 If a man devises lands..to provide his children with necessaries. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) III. 348 The money to buy the necessaries of their household. |
b. in sing.
| 1516 Galway Arch. in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. V. 397 No man..shall not lende galley, botte, nor barque.., nor no furnitors or necessary to them appertayninge. 1663 Gerbier Counsel e 3 b, From the least that lives to the greatest Building is a main necessary. 1682 A. Behn City Heiress ii. i, That damn'd Necessary call'd Ready Money. 1724 Swift Drapier's Lett. i, Your Bread and Clothing, and every common Necessary of Life. 1771 F. Burney Early Diary (1889) I. 135 She denied herself every necessary. 1833 H. Martineau Loom & Lugger i. iv. 60 A foreign article, be it a necessary or a luxury. 1884 American VII. 339 The cost of this necessary [salt] since the duty was imposed upon it. |
c. attrib., as necessaries-man, one who supplies necessaries to a vessel to enable her to continue the voyage; necessary money (see quot. 1867).
| 1866 Law Rep., Adm. & Eccl. I. 305 A necessaries-man has until institution of suit no claim upon a Vessel. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. 495 Necessary Money..formerly allowed to pursers for the coals, wood, turnery-ware, candles, and other necessaries provided by them. |
† 2. A near friend or kinsman. Obs. rare—1.
| 1382 Wyclif 2 Macc. iv. 3 By summe necessaries (or niȝ freendis) of Symount man-sleayngus weren don. |
† 3. a. pl. Necessary expenses. Obs. rare—1.
| c 1449 Pecock Repr. iii. xi. 347 Her endewing so myche schranke..that it was aftirward ouer litle to supporte her necessaries. |
† b. A necessary action. Obs. rare.
| 1596 Harington Metam. Ajax D 5 b, There is no obscenitie..in words concerning our necessaries: but now for the place where these necessaries are to be done. |
4. A necessary house. (See A. 3.)
| 1756 Connoisseur No. 120 ¶6 The Connoisseurs in Architecture, who build.. necessaries according to Palladio. 1805 R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. I. 223 Strewing them in the bottoms of poultry and pigeon houses, dung heaps, and necessaries. 1844 H. Stephens Bk. Farm II. 412 A necessary might easily be constructed in connection with the liquid manure tank. 1877– in various dial. glossaries. |
5. With the. a. That which is needful; spec. the necessary funds or money.
| 1772 C. Hutton Bridges 84 To make the convenient give place to the necessary when their interests are opposite. 1897 Daily News 6 Sept. 3/6 A fund..for the purpose of providing the ‘necessary’ in order to bring test cases. |
b. That which is necessarily determined.
| 1809–10 Coleridge Friend (1865) 97 So far as..we possess the ideas of the necessary and the universal. |