Wordwyrt

supernumerary

Meaningbeyond

Common meaning: extra to the usual number

‘over, above’ + ‘a number’ → supernumerary

Journey through time

  • super — Latin super- “over, above” (path traced)
  • numerary — Latin numerus “a number” (path traced)

Parts join in Latin as super.

  1. Latinsuper- + numer-us‘over, above + a number’source
  2. Latinsuper‘beyond’source
  3. Frenchmeaning shiftsbeyond → extra in numbersupernumeraire‘extra in number’source
  4. Englishsupernumerary‘extra to the usual number’ · today

Sources & notes

Meaning: “Meaning” is the sense that emerges from the word’s roots; “Common meaning” is today’s everyday sense. Both written by us.

Pronunciation

  • UK IPA: not available. Respelling: generated.
  • US IPA: not available. Respelling: generated.

Origin: Built on Latin super, which Skeat analyses as super- ‘over, above’ + numer-us ‘a number’.

Roots

Related words

enumerateinnumerablenumbernumeralnumeroussovereignsurfeitsurmisesurround

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