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surfeit: msg#00025culture.language.word-of-the-day
***************************************************************** Looking for a Merriam-Webster dictionary that fits your own special needs? Come on in and browse! http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/book.pl?diction.htm ***************************************************************** The Word of the Day for March 26 is: surfeit \SUR-fut\ noun *1 : an overabundant supply : excess 2 : an intemperate or immoderate indulgence in something (as food or drink) 3 : disgust caused by excess Example sentence: A Red Cross spokesperson noted that a surfeit of donated blood is never really a problem, whereas shortages frequently are. Did you know? There is an abundance -- you could almost say a surfeit -- of English words that derive from the Latin "facere," meaning "to do." The connection to "facere" is fairly obvious for words spelled with "fic," "fac," or "fec," such as "sacrifice," "benefaction," and "infect." For words like "stupefy" (a modification of Latin "stupefacere") and "hacienda" (originally, in Old Spanish and Latin, "facienda") the "facere" factor is not so apparent. As for "surfeit," the "c" was dropped along the path that led from Latin through Anglo-French, where "facere" became "faire" and "sur-" was added to make "surfaire," meaning "overdo." The Anglo-French noun "surfet" ("excess") entered Middle English and went through a number of spellings before settling on "surfeit." *Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence. |
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