supernumerary
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supernumerary
- /ˌsuːpəˈnjuːm(ə)ɹ(ə)ɹi/ UK
- /ˌsupɚˈn(j)uməˌɹɛɹi/ US
Where it comes from
From Late Latin supernumerarius (“extra soldier added to a legion; supernumerary”), from super (“above; beyond”) + numerus (“number; collection, quantity”) + -ārius (suffix forming adjectives from nouns or numerals). The word is analysable as super- + numeral + -ary.
noun supernumeraries
- A person who works in a group, association, or public office without forming part of the regular staff (the numerary). The judge was a supernumerary, helping the regular judges whenever there was a surplus amount of work.
- An extra or walk-on, often non-speaking, in a film or play; a spear carrier. [A] minor actor or supernumerary often has a better opportunity to watch great actors than the great actors themselves.
- Something which is beyond the prescribed or standard amount or number. On each side the glass hung one of the large engravings; another over the secretary, facing the window, and the fourth, which for some time seemed a supernumerary, over the door.
- An animal which has not formed a pair bond and is therefore single. The best evidence so far that social supernumeraries are physically capable of bettering their lot concerns not rodents but birds.
- A married man or woman who is a secular member of Opus Dei, a Roman Catholic religious institution. “Supernumeraries”, the bulk of Opus Dei members, can marry and live in their own homes, with slightly fewer spiritual obligations.
adjective
- Greater in number than. This method applies to the observation of angles, usually obtained by repetitions; and instead of equating directions, as in the first method, its object is to furnish the most probable values for the several observed angles from a supernumerary number of angles.
- Beyond the prescribed or standard amount or number; excess, extra. I believe a hive, or swarm, has but one queen, at least I have never found more than one in a swarm, or in an old hive in the winter; and probably this is what constitutes a hive; for when there are two queens, it is likely that a division may begin to take place. Supernumerary queens are mentioned
- Of an organ or structure: additional to what is normally present. a supernumerary nipple; a supernumerary tooth
- Beyond what is necessary; redundant. Resolved, that the Curators be authorized to exchange with other societies or individuals, such duplicate or supernumerary specimens of coins, medals, minerals and other articles as they may deem unnecessary to be retained in the Cabinet of the Society, for such other specimens, of equal value, as t
