surplusage

English

Etymology

From Medieval Latin surplusagium, from surplus.

Noun

surplusage (countable and uncountable, plural surplusages)

1. (now rare) A surplus; a superabundance.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     If then thee list my offred grace to vse, / Take what thou please of all this surplusage; / If thee list not, leaue haue thou to refuse […]

   • 1841, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Compensation:

     A surplusage given to one part is paid out of a reduction from another part of the same creature.

2. (law) Matter in pleading which is not necessary or relevant to the case, and may be rejected.
3. (finance) A greater disbursement than the charge of the accountant amounts to.
   • 1802–1819, Abraham Rees, The Cyclopædia; or, Universal Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Literature

     one third-part of the surplusage of the estate of any person dying inteſtate, ſhall be distributed to his widow,and the reſidue amongſt his children by equal portions