- 1
A superfluity of something is more of it than you need — an amount that spills past the point of . It is a formal, noun, and you will meet it far more often in writing than in speech; if you said it at lunch, people would notice. It is usually followed by 'of': 'a superfluity of choices', 'a superfluity of detail'. Two things are worth watching. First, the tone is almost always , even when the thing itself is good: 'a superfluity of talent' still hints that some of that talent is going to waste. Second, it can point in two directions. Sometimes it names the excess amount ('a superfluity of rules'), and sometimes it names the leftover things themselves — the extras that could be cut away. Older writers, especially, used the plural 'superfluities' to mean luxuries, the things a person does not really need. That older use is why the word can carry a small moral flavour, as if having too much were a mild fault.
多餘（的部分）、過剩；文言一點可說「冗餘」。注意這是書面語，中文若用「太多」就太口語了，語感上比較接近「過猶不及」的那個「過」
組成superfluous + -ity. The -ity ending turns an adjective into a noun naming the quality — so superfluity is literally 'the state of being superfluous'. Behind it, Latin super ('over, above') + fluere ('to flow'): the picture is of water flowing over the edge of a full container.
同家族的字
- superfluousthe adjective this noun is built from — same super- + flow root
- fluidshares Latin fluere, 'to flow'
- influenceLatin in- + fluere, something 'flowing in'
原始詞典資料3 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
superfluitynoun/ˌsuː.pəˈfluː.ɪ.ti/
- 1
The quality or state of being superfluous; overflowingness.
- [S]he could not but contrast the splendour of the Polish retinues and their plumages and draperies, with the strait-buttoned Prussian dignitaries, all in mere soldier uniform, succinct 'blue coat, white linen gaiters,' and no superfluity even in the epaulettes and red facings.
- Each stores has its own storekeeper, a clerk who specializes in organizing his department so that there is not a superfluity of one article and a scarcity of another.
- 2
Something superfluous, such as a luxury.
- As they had almost all the conveniencies of life within themselves, they seldom visited towns or cities in search of superfluity.
- I really doubt whether there be such a thing as a heart in the world: perhaps, after all, it is only an elegant superfluity kept for the use of poets. Certainly we have no use for it here.
- 3
rareA group of nuns.
- These probably mark the dwelling of a colony, or to speak more precisely, according to Dame Juliana Berners, a superfluity of nuns from Godstow, which nunnery had a cell there, and was patron of the living.
- Alice put Anna back on the shelf and turned up the volume on the TV, where a local news reporter was imparting a salutary tale of woe involving a superfluity of nuns who'd got into a scrape at a crab festival.
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。