excrescent, a.
(ɛkˈskrɛsənt)
Also 6 excressent.
[ad. L. excrēscent-em, pr. pple. of excrēscĕre: see excresce v.]
1. † a. gen. That grows out. Const. from (obs.). b. Bot. of a peduncle (see quot. 1857).
| 1650 Bulwer Anthropomet. 172 The excrescent, supercrescent, and ever-crescent parts. 1677 Hale Prim. Orig. Man. iii. ii. 257 The first spontaneous production of Men..was in certain Folliculi or Bladders, excrescent from the Earth. 1779 Projects in Nat. Hist. 107/2 They will wash this excrescent substance off. 1834–43 Southey Doctor (1862) 24 Matter will arise contingent to the story..or excrescent from it. 1857 Henfrey Bot. §139 Sometimes the peduncles undergo expansion during the ripening of the seeds, so as to form part of the fruit; such an inflorescence or peduncle is called excrescent. |
2. † a. Growing in excess or beyond normal limits; excessive (obs.). b. Growing abnormally out of something else; constituting an excrescence; redundant, superfluous.
| 1633 T. Adams Exp. 2 Peter ii. 13 We pare off such excrescent blemishes that the body may be perfect. 1657 Tomlinson Renou's Disp. 69 The virtue of chrysocal is..to cohibit excrescent flesh. 1671 True Nonconf. 153 Their Immediate successors are against your Prelatick excrescent power. 1697 Potter Antiq. Greece iv. x. (1715) 248 She from the Fore-head of a new foal'd Colt Th' excrescent Lump doth seek. 1732 Pope Ess. Man ii. 49 Expunge the whole, or lop the excrescent parts [of Science]. 1886 F. Ford in Mag. Of Art Nov. 8 There is an excrescent structure of wood stuck on the wall. |
3. Constituting an excess over the normal quantity. Formerly, spec. in Chronology.
| 1609 Holland Amm. Marcel. xxvi. i. 456 note, The odde day which everie fourth yeare arising out of the six excrescent howers in each yeare, maketh the leape yeare. a 1654 Selden Fortescue's De Laud. Reg. (1672) 128 The foure excrescent quadrants of a day in the Julian yeare were and are, at the end of every four years space, put into one day. 1832 Chalmers Pol. Econ. vii. 220 The excrescent, or the superinduced population. |
b. Gram. Of a sound in a word: Having no etymological value, but developed by the influence of euphony.
| 1868 Key Philol. Essays 204 Excrescent Consonants. I have thought it desirable to ask for one [a new grammatical term]..because the ordinary term ‘epenthesis’ seems to have been formed on a false theory. 1881 Skeat Etym. Dict. s.v. Sound, The final d..is excrescent, just as in the vulgar gownd for gown. |