Superfluous
By DW Davis
@DWDavis (25797)
United States
August 2, 2019 5:11pm CST
During an introspective inspection of my navel today, the word superfluous popped into my head. The first thing I wondered was what is so super about being fluous. Then, I wondered just what it meant to be fluous. A chat with the google monster was obviously called for.
Fluous, as it turns out, is from the Latin suffix "fluus" and means "flowing" according to journalnow.com.
That being the case, superfluous, one would think, means super flowing. However, let's look at super as a prefix.
Super, as a prefix, means "above and beyond." Okay, so superfluous means "above and beyond flowing." Only it doesn't. Or, maybe it does.
The most common definition of superfluous is "unnecessary." It can also mean, "being more than enough."
If you have come to the conclusion that this post itself is superfluous because it is super flowing with information, unnecessary, and more than enough, then I have done my job and you have mastered the word, "superfluous."
You're welcome.
8 people like this
7 responses
@JohnRoberts (109841)
• Los Angeles, California
2 Aug 19
Such a teacher. Getting warmed up for the real thing?
3 people like this
@AliCanary (4387)
•
3 Aug 19
As an extra extra piece of information, I'm going to note that in American English, at least, the word is pronounced soo-PER-floo-us, and not, as I had originally thought when I read it the first time, SOO-per-FLOO-us.
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