surplusage
(ˈsɜːpləsɪdʒ)
Also 5 -plausage, 6 -plesage, (-plushach), 6–9 -plussage, 7 -plus(s)adge. Also supplusage.
[ad. med.L. surplusagium, f. surplus: see prec. and -age. Cf. AF. superplusage, med.L. superplusagium.]
1. = surplus 1.
| c 1407 Lydg. Reson & Sens. 6341 To refuse and voyde clene Of excesse all surplusage. 1430–40 ― Bochas v. xvi. (MS. Bodl. 263) 279/1 He took non heed of al the surplusage Of ther tresours. c 1470 Harding Chron. Proem xl. (MS. Arch. Seld. B. 10) lf. 8 b, How of this Reame þe noble gouernours Haue kepte it..In victorie triumphe and surplausage. 1527 Lanc. Wills (Chetham Soc.) I. 28 The surplushach of the said money to dispose for my soule. c 1530 Songs, Carols, etc. (E.E.T.S.) 77 Of this pore secte it is the vsage, Only to take þat nature may susteyn; Banysshyng clen all oþer surplusage. 1531 Elyot Gov. iii. viii, Fortitude..is a..meane betwene two extremities, the one in surplusage, the other in lacke. 1553 Act 7 Edw. VI, c. 1 §11 Delyvering to the partie distreigned the surplusage and overplus of the valew of every such distres. 1579–80 North Plutarch (1595) 497 (Sylla) Catulus campe being plentifully victualed, they sent their store & surplusage vnto Marius souldiers. 1607 T. Walkington Optic Glass 115 Any..cause that generates a surplussage of blood. 1637 Heywood Royall King i. Wks. 1874 VI. 6 You load me with a surplussadge Of comptlesse debt to this thrice valiant Lord. 1670–1 Act 22 & 23 Chas. II, c. 10. §5 To make distribution of the Surplusage of the Estate of any person dying intestate. 1696 in Col. Rec. Pennsylv. I. 494 The Surplusage for defraying the debts of the government. 1715 tr. Pancirollus' Rerum Mem. II. xiii. 353 [They] tie them close..winding the Surplusage of the String about them. 1775 Johnson West. Isl. Wks. X. 410 The cattle to live wholly on the surplusage of the summer. 1840 Carlyle Heroes iii. (1858) 255 The gifted man is he who sees the essential point, and leaves all the rest aside as surplusage. 1882 J. H. Blunt Ref. Ch. Eng. II. 36 The documents were mere surplusage, the bishops exercising jurisdiction without them. 1888 Times (weekly ed.) 30 Mar. 5/3 Any other question might seem merely surplusage. |
b. An excess or superabundance (of words); spec. in Law, a word, clause, or statement in an indictment or a plea which is not necessary to its adequacy.
| a 1530 J. Heywood Love (Brandl) 137 To abreueate the tyme and to exclude Surplusage of wordes. 1589 Puttenham Engl. Poesie iii. xxii. (Arb.) 264 The Poet or makers speech becomes vicious..by nothing more than by vsing too much surplusage. 1649 C. Walker Hist. Independ. ii. 245 The word..was a surplusage, for which no Indictment could lie. 1651 tr. Kitchin's Courts Leet (1657) 420 Formedon of a house, and in the perclose of the Writ there is a house and meadow; and after view the Tenant cannot shew that in abatement, for that it is but a Surplusage. 1708 Term Rep. VIII. 497 The word ‘feloniously’ in this declaration is impertinent, and may be rejected as surplusage. 1851 Sir F. Palgrave Norm. & Eng. I. 353 Nor is it surplussage to reiterate the same thought or fact. 1880 Muirhead Gaius Introd. p. xii, Omissions and surplusages in the MS. 1884 Law Rep. 25 Chanc. Div. 685 The reference to widowhood could not..be treated as surplusage, but was the principal part of the condition. 1908 Pitman's ‘How to take Minutes’ 33 Many minute books contain a surplusage of words. |
2. = surplus 2.
| c 1407 Lydg. Reson & Sens. 4768 Thou gest of me no more langage, I put al the surplusage In thyn ovne eleccion After thy discrecion. 1430–40 ― Bochas viii. xxiv. (MS. Bodl. 263) 400/2 To conclude & leue the surplusage In that bataile ded was many a kniht. 1472–3 Rolls of Parlt. VI. 49/2 The surplusage of the price therof..to be delyvered to the owner. a 1513 Fabyan Chron. vi. clviii. (1811) 147 Of the holynes of this martyr..the legende of Sayntes reportith the surplusage. |