Also 5 -plausage, 6 -plesage, (-plushach), 6–9 -plussage, 7 -plus(s)adge. Also SUPPLUSAGE. [ad. med.L. surplusagium, f. surplus: see prec. and -AGE. Cf. AF. supperplusage, med.L. superplusagium.]
1. = SURPLUS 1.
c. 1407. Lydg., Reson & Sens., 6341. To refuse and voyde clene Of excesse all surplusage. Ibid. (1430–40), Bochas, V. xvi. (MS. Bodl. 263), 279/1. He took non heed of al the surplusage Of ther tresours.
c. 1470. Harding, Chron. Proem xl. (MS. Arch. Seld. B. 10), lf. 8 b. How of this Reame þe noble gouernours Haue kepte it … In victorie triumphe and surplausage.
1527. Lanc. Wills (Chetham Soc.), I. 28. The surplushach of the said money to dispose for my soule.
c. 1530. Songs, Carols, etc. (E.E.T.S.), 77. Of this pore secte it is the vsage, Only to take þat nature may susteyn; Banysshyng clen all oþer surplusage.
1531. Elyot, Gov., II. viii. Fortitude … is a … meane betwene two extremities, the one in surplusage, the other in lacke.
1553. Act 7 Edw. VI., c. 1 § 11. Delyvering to the partie distreigned the surplusage and overplus of the valew of every such distres.
1579–80. North, Plutarch (1595), 497. (Sylla) Catulus campe being plentifully victualed, they sent their store & surplusage vnto Marius souldiers.
1607. Walkington, Optic Glass, 115. Any … cause that generates a surplussage of blood.
1637. Heywood, Royall King, I. Wks. 1874, VI. 6. You load me with a surplussadge Of comptlesse debt to this thrice valiant Lord.
1670–1. Act 22 & 23 Chas. II., c. 10 § 5. To make distribution of the Surplusage of the Estate of any person dying intestate.
1696. in Col. Rec. Pennsylv., I. 494. The Surplusage for defraying the debts of the government.
1715. trans. Pancirollus’ Rerum Mem., II. xiii. 353. [They] tie them close … winding the Surplusage of the String about them.
1775. Johnson, West. Isl., Wks. X. 410. The cattle to live wholly on the surplusage of the summer.
1840. Carlyle, Heroes, iii. (1858), 255. The gifted man is he who sees the essential point, and leaves all the rest aside as surplusage.
1882. J. H. Blunt. Ref. Ch. Eng., II. 36. The documents were mere surplusage, the bishops exercising jurisdiction without them.
1888. Times (weekly ed.), 30 March, 5/3. Any other question might seem merely surplusage.
b. An excess or superabundance (of words); spec. in Law, a word, clause or statement in an indictment or a plea which is not necessary to its adequacy.
a. 1530. J. Heywood, Love (Brandl), 137. To abreueate the tyme and to exclude Surplusage of wordes.
1589. Puttenham, Engl. Poesie, III. xxii. (Arb.), 264. The Poet or makers speech becomes vicious … by nothing more than by vsing too much surplusage.
1649. C. Walker, Hist. Independ., II. 245. The word … was a surplusage, for which no Indictment could lie.
1651. trans. Kitchin’s Courts Leet (1657), 420. Formedon of a house, and in the perclose of the Writ there is a house and meadow; and after view the Tenant cannot shew that in abatement, for that it is but a Surplusage.
1798. Term Rep., VIII. 497. The word ‘feloniously’ in this declaration is impertinent, and may be rejected as surplusage.
1851. Sir F. Palgrave, Norm. & Eng., I. 353. Nor is it surplussage to reiterate the same thought or fact.
1880. Muirhead, Gaius, Introd. p. xii. Omissions and surplusages in the MS.
1884. Law Rep., 25 Chanc. Div. 685. The reference to widowhood could not … be treated as surplusage, but was the principal part of the condition.
1908. Pitman’s ‘How to take Minutes,’ 33. Many minute books contain a surplusage of words.
2. = SURPLUS 2.
c. 1407. Lydg., Reson & Sens., 4768. Thou gest of me no more langage, I put al the surplusage In thyn ovne eleccion After thy discrecion. Ibid. (1430–40), Bochas, VIII. xxiv. (MS. Bodl. 263), 400/2. To conclude & leue the surplusage In that bataile ded was many a kniht.
1472–3. Rolls of Parlt., VI. 49/2. The surplusage of the price therof … to be delyvered to the owner.
a. 1513. Fabyan, Chron., VI. clviii. (1811), 147. Of the holynes of this martyr … the legende of Sayntes reportith the surplusage.
