exorbitation

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English

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Latin exorbitatio, from exorbitō (to go off the track, deviate) +‎ -tio.

Noun

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exorbitation (countable and uncountable, plural exorbitations)

  1. (now rare) The act of leaving the usual path or course; deviation.
    • 1635, Tho[mas] Heywood, “The Seraphim”, in The Hierarchie of the Blessed Angells. Their Names, Orders and Offices; The Fall of Lucifer with His Angells, London: [] Adam Islip, page 12:
      Nothing they are ſaue a meere perturbation / Of common Nature, an exorbitation / And bringing our of ſquare; []
    • 1868, Julia Ward Howe, “Return Voyage”, in From the Oak to the Olive: A Plain Record of a Pleasant Journey, Boston: Lee and Shepard, page 248:
      It does not recount how mercifully the captain of our steamer found a valet de place for us, and told him to take care of us, and bring us back at a given moment. Nor how our payment of ten francs for three persons, instead of Heaven knows what exorbitation, was owing to this circumstance.
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Further reading

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