supervacaneous
adjUK /ˌsuːpəvəˈkeɪnɪəs/ · US /ˌsuːpəɹvəˈkeɪnɪəs/
Etymology From Latin supervacāneus; compare Italian supervacaneo, Portuguese supervacâneo, Spanish supervacáneo.
1
Archaic Added above what is needed or necessary; superfluous, redundant.
- It is an awful thing to find your efforts supervacaneous when you are so far away from home and friends, sympathy, and help.1915, George Wharton James, Our American Woodlands:
- ‘It became all the more important for me to get out because my son Foster, aged now fifteen, is only ten points below genius and this genius would have been unavailing and supervacaneous, in other words wasted, behind the iron curtain.’1960, Nancy Mitford, Don't Tell Alfred:
1 more example
- If I were simply to discuss noses in disregard of their relation to other entities, then I would declare without fear of contradiction that the nose of Mrs. Goldfield is superb, superlative, and, though possibly supervacaneous, one well-placed to win first prize at any exhibition of nasal development which might be organized by the long-nosed goblins on Mount Kurama.1972, Aiko Itō and Graeme Wilson, translating Natsume Sōseki, I Am a Cat (2002 combined edition, Tuttle Publishing, volume one, chapter III, page 152
- Synonyms
- pleonastic, redundant, superfluous, supervacaneal, supervacuous
- Derived terms
- supervacaneously, supervacaneousness