supererogatory

English

Etymology

From Latin superērogātōrius (“supererogatory”), from superērogātiō (“payment in addition”), from superērogō (“pay out over and above”), from super (“above”) + ērogō (“pay out, expend”); from ex (“out of, from”) + rogō (“ask; request”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /suːpəɹɛˈɹɒɡətəɹi/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Adjective

supererogatory (comparative more supererogatory, superlative most supererogatory)

1. Pertaining to supererogation; doing more than is required, especially with reference to good works in Roman Catholicism.
   • 1885–1886, Henry James, The Bostonians […], London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published 16 February 1886, →OCLC:

     They passed into the ancient shipyard which lay beyond, and which was now a mere vague, grass-grown approach to the waterside, bestrewn with a few remnants of supererogatory timber.

   • 1989, Anthony Burgess, “Un”, in Any Old Iron, London: Hutchinson, →ISBN; republished New York, N.Y.: Washington Square Press, Pocket Books, 1990, →ISBN, page 20:

     "In now you come," she ordered, "and we make love." That seemed supererogatory to David Jones, who, under the gaze of the painted deer, got in there and did as he was told.

   • 2002, David Heyd, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:

     It is, for example, not clear whether “love thy enemy” is a precept or a supererogatory counsel.

   • 2022, China Miéville, chapter 6, in A Spectre, Haunting: On the Communist Manifesto, →OCLC:

     It [capitalism] increasingly deploys not just bureaucratic repression but an invested, overt, supererogatory sadism.

Derived terms

• supererogatorily

Related terms

• supererogate
• supererogation

Translations

doing more than is required

• Arabic: نَافِلَة (nāfila)
• German: übergebührlich
• Greek: περιττός (el) m (perittós), πέραν του δέοντος (péran tou déontos)
• Latin: superērogātōrius
• Portuguese: supererrogativo m, supererrogatório
• Spanish: supererogatorio (es)