surfeit
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\n \n Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 12, 2024 is:\n \n
\n \n\n surfeit • \\SER-fut\\ • noun
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Surfeit is a formal word that refers to an amount or supply that is too much or more than you need. It is synonymous with the word excess.
\n\n// The organization ended up with a surfeit of volunteers who simply got in each other's way.
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"Pet owners can have a tougher time finding apartments because of the surfeit of landlords who don't allow dogs, cats or other animals in their buildings." \u2014 Andrew J. Campa, The Los Angeles Times, 22 Feb. 2024
\n \n \n\n Did you know?
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There is an abundance\u2014you could almost say a surfeit\u2014of English words that come from the Latin verb facere, meaning "to do." The connection to facere is fairly obvious for words spelled with "fic," "fac," or "fec," such as sacrifice, fact, and infect. For words like stupefy (a modification of the Latin word stupefacere) and hacienda (originally, in Old Spanish and Latin, facienda) the facere relation is not so apparent. As for surfeit, a "c" was dropped along the path that led from Latin through Anglo-French, where facere became faire ("to do") and sur- was added to make the verb surfaire, meaning "to overdo." It is the Anglo-French noun surfet ("excess"), however, that Middle English borrowed, eventually settling on the spelling surfeit.
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