supernumerary
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˌsuːpəˈnjuːm(ə)ɹ(ə)ɹi/
ipa: /ˌsupɚˈn(j)uməˌɹɛɹi/
Forms: form: supernumeraries
Etymology: 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.
Senses: examples: text: The judge was a supernumerary, helping the regular judges whenever there was a surplus amount of work.
text: The Officers, Non-Commissioned Officers, Bombardiers, Fifers, Gunners, Private Men, and Boys of the Royal Marines belonging to Her Majesty's Ships or Vessels, whether entered on the Ship's Books as part of the complement, or borne as supernumeraries, except when borne for a passage for service on shore, shall be considered entitled to the same advantages as the rest of the Ship's Company.
ref: 1844, chapter VI, in The Queen’s Regulations for the Government of Her Majesty’s Naval Service, London: Printed by William Clowes and Sons, Stamford Street, for Her Majesty's Stationery Office, →OCLC, § I (Royal Marines when Embarked), paragraph 1, page 182:
text: What are the supernumeraries? upon whose report are they employed?— […] [I]f it is temporary employment, or for a temporary situation only, as occasion may require, such as the supernumeraries’ situations, for instance, these are looked upon as temporary appointments, although, from the great increase in our business, they have been in some respects permanent.
ref: 1847 July 12, Josiah Forshall (interviewee), “Minutes of Evidence Taken before the Commissioners Appointed to Inquire into the Constitution and Management, &c., of the British Museum”, in Report of the Commissioners Appointed to Inquire into the Constitution and Government of the British Museum; with Minutes of Evidence: Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of Her Majesty, London: Printed by William Clowes and Sons, Stamford Street, for Her Majesty's Stationery Office, published 1850, →OCLC, page 26:
text: Hospital Staff.—To be Assistant Surgeons to the Forces. – Assistant Surgeons Angus John Mackay, Supernumerary in the 1st Foot; Albert Hawkins, Supernumerary in the 4th Foot; […]
ref: 1856 September, “Promotions and Appointments. [War Department, Aug. 1.]”, in Colburn’s United Service Magazine, and Naval and Military Journal, part III, London: Hurst and Blackett, publishers, (successors to Henry Colburn), […], →OCLC, page 169, column 1:
text: After this general training the apprentices are usually employed for a year or two as supernumeraries, being engaged to a large extent on special enquiries, a type of work well suited to rounding off their training and also to assisting both the company and the men to ascertain the type of work for which they are best suited.
ref: 1942 July-August, T. F. Cameron, “How the Staff of a Railway is Recruited”, in Railway Magazine, page 206:
glosses: A person who works in a group, association, or public office without forming part of the regular staff (the numerary).
examples: text: [A] minor actor or supernumerary often has a better opportunity to watch great actors than the great actors themselves.
ref: 1983, H[endrik] B[rugt] G[erhard] Casimir, “Introduction”, in Haphazard Reality: Half a Century of Science (A Sloan Foundation Book), New York, N.Y.: Harper and Row, →ISBN; republished Amsterdam: Amsterdam Academic Archive, Amsterdam University Press, 2010, →ISBN, page 1:
text: Though little is known about Noble Luke Usher before his first recorded performance in Washington, D.C., in 1800, it is certain that he made the rounds of the eastern theatres as a supernumerary before as well as after that year.
ref: 2009, West T. Hill, Jr., “The First Western Circuit”, in The Theatre in Early Kentucky 1790–1820, paperback edition, Lexington, Ky.: University Press of Kentucky, →ISBN, page 72:
topics: broadcasting
entertainment
film
lifestyle
media
television
theater
synonyms: supe
super
glosses: An extra or walk-on, often non-speaking, in a film or play; a spear carrier.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1850, Mary Howitt, “Little Coin, Much Care: Or, How Poor Men Live”, in Popular Moral Tales for the Young, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Co., […], →OCLC, chapter I (How Mr. Bartram Let Two of His Houses, and What Sort of Tenants He Had), page 12:
text: Ideally, the surgery is timed so that removal of the supernumerary tooth does not interfere with permanent tooth development. The earlier the supernumerary can be removed, however, the more likely it is that the permanent teeth will erupt normally. Surgery to remove a supernumerary is often complicated, especially if there are multiple supernumerary teeth or if access to the supernumerary tooth is limited. These patients are appropriately referred to a specialist.
ref: 2013, Clifford O. Dummett, Jr.; Sarat Thikkurissy, “Anomalies of the Developing Dentition”, in Paul S. Casamassimo, Dennis J. McTigue, Henry W. Fields, Jr., Arthur J. Nowak, editors, Pediatric Dentistry: Infancy through Adolescence, 5th edition, St. Louis, Mo.: Saunders, Elsevier, →ISBN, page 55, column 2:
glosses: Something which is beyond the prescribed or standard amount or number.
examples: text: The best evidence so far that social supernumeraries are physically capable of bettering their lot concerns not rodents but birds.
ref: 1996–2005, W[illiam] D[onald] Hamilton, “Sorority Avenue: Altruism and Related Phenomena, Mainly in Social Insects”, in Narrow Roads of Gene Land: The Collected Papers of W. D. Hamilton, volume 1 (Evolution of Social Behaviour), Houndmills, Basingstoke; New York, N.Y.: W. H. Freeman and Company, →ISBN, page 278:
text: There are differences in the composition of the social group [of certain birds] such as whether one or more sex provides help, and the stability of the associations between supernumeraries and the dominant breeders.
ref: 2004, Andrew Cockburn, “Mating Systems and Sexual Conflict”, in Walter D. Koenig, Janis L. Dickinson, editors, Ecology and Evolution of Cooperative Breeding in Birds, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 88, column 1:
topics: biology
natural-sciences
zoology
glosses: An animal which has not formed a pair bond and is therefore single.
examples: text: “Supernumeraries”, the bulk of Opus Dei members, can marry and live in their own homes, with slightly fewer spiritual obligations.
ref: 2024 March 16, Antonia Cundy, “The Opus Dei diaries”, in FT Weekend, page 17:
topics: Catholicism
Christianity
Roman-Catholicism
glosses: A married man or woman who is a secular member of Opus Dei, a Roman Catholic religious institution.
Derived terms: word: supe
english: extra, walk-on
translation: extra, walk-on
word: super
word: supernumerarily
word: supernumerariness
word: supernumeraryship
Related terms: supernumerous
supranumerary