Superfluity

Superfluity - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

SUPERFLU'ITY, n. [L. superfluitas; super and fluo, to flow.]

1. Superabundance; a greater quantity than is wanted; as a superfluity of water or provisions.

2. Something that is beyond what is wanted; something rendered unnecessary by its abundance. Among the superfluities of life we seldom number the abundance of money.

Superfluous - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

SUPER'FLUOUS, a. [L. superfluus, overflowing; super and fluo, to flow.]

1. More than is wanted; rendered unnecessary by superabundance; as a superfluous supply of corn.

2. More than sufficient; unnecessary; useless; as a composition abounding with superfluous words. Superfluous epithets rather enfeeble than strengthen description. If what has been said will not convince, it would be superfluous to say more.

Superfluous interval, in music, is one that exceeds a true diatonic interval by a semitone minor.

Superfluous polygamy, (Polygamia superflua,) a kind of inflorescence or compound flower, in which the florets of the disk are hermaphrodite and fertile, and those of the ray, though female or pistiliferous only, are also fertile; designating the second order of the class Syngenesia of Linne.

Superfluous sound or tone, is one which contains a semitone minor more than a tone.

su-pur'-floo-us, su-per-floo'-i-ti (sara`; perissos (2Co 9:1), perisseia): According to the Levitical Law, "a blind man, or a lame, or he that hath a fiat nose, or anything superfluous" could not fulfill priestly functions (Le 21:18; 22:23). According to Dillmann (Baentsch, BDB) the word should be rendered "a limb too long," but Ewald (following the Septuagint) suggests "having cropped ears." The only instance of superfluity occurs in Jas 1:21, the King James Version "superfluity of naughtiness"; according to Mayor "overflowing ebullition of malice" (the Revised Version (British and American) "overflowing of wickedness," margin "malice"); but the Greek word is used in other connections, e.g. of "grace" (Ro 5:17); "joy" (2Co 8:2).

T. Lewis