Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The act of one who supererogates; performance of more than duty requires.
Wiktionary
- n. religion Doing more than is required.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The act of supererogating; performance of more than duty or necessity requires.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an effort above and beyond the call of duty
Examples
“Unlike the concepts of justice and duty, which have deep roots in both ordinary language and everyday moral judgment, the idea of supererogation is only tenuously anchored in common moral discourse and the concept itself is a theoretical construct.”
“But this double role of normative discourse inevitably raises the idea of supererogation, the category of actions that are praiseworthy (either in creating good states of affairs or in reflecting a particularly virtuous trait of character) yet at the same time not obligatory.”
“I mean a month at least, taking the bark even to supererogation, that is, some time longer than Dr. Middleton requires; for, I presume, you are got over your childishness about tastes, and are sensible that your health deserves more attention than your palate.”
Letters to his son on The Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman
“Europe: I mean a month at least, taking the bark even to supererogation, that is, some time longer than Dr. Middleton requires; for, I presume, you are got over your childishness about tastes, and are sensible that your health deserves more attention than your palate.”
“It would be "supererogation" to go into our early legislation, which is familiar to the colony in a hundred publications, besides the fact that”
“I am going to go out on a limb and say that that "supererogation" is yet another one of these instances. on 01 May 2009 at 11: 40 pm + Alan”
“A gift is often an act of supererogation, something that is morally good to do, but not required.”
MJR Montoya: On the Politics of Giving and Receiving -- Obama and the Peace Prize
“Giving a gift to a powerful person can be seen as an act of supererogation.”
MJR Montoya: On the Politics of Giving and Receiving -- Obama and the Peace Prize
“There is no knockout argument for any of the three views of supererogation.”
“Paradoxically, it may be noted, exactly because human actions can never fulfill God's commandments, divine grace is never due or ethically called for: it is typically supererogatory, a free gift of God! An interesting parallel to the Christian concept of supererogation can be found in Jewish thought in the notion of "lifnim mishurat hadin".”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘supererogation’.
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phrontistery-s
from phrontistery.info
sabaton, sabbatarian, sabbulonarium, sabelline, sabin, sable, sabliere, sabot, sabretache, sabulous, saburration, saccade and 1593 more...
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cicatrix
scar tissue
minatory, naira, Cluniac, embracive, prolix, hierophant, timorous, adduce, veracious, dysphoric, sang-froid, vitiate and 505 more...
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Greg's List
precarious, transient, evanescence, impermanence, fugacity, transitoriness, volatility, caducity, span, interregnum, effervescent, mine and 63 more...
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Joycean Vocab
You ain't read no English til you read Joyce.
rasher, cygnet, usquebaugh, ephebe, entelechy, kish, caul, vicereine, atelier, daguerreotype, communard, connubial and 99 more...
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Is it morning yet?
coterie, lexeme, counterbalance, forthright, pigtail, ponytail, french-braid, barrette, listless, counsel, sitting duck, dead duck and 268 more...
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Clarissa, Or, The History of a Young ...
These words are from Samuel Richardson's novel Clarissa, Or, The History of a Young Lady, 1747-48
adumbrate, virago, varlet, rencounter, akimbo, palliate, amanuensis, amok, equipage, cully, se'ennight, resentments and 560 more...
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Words that were new to me
but now they're not because I looked them up. In cases of polysemy or homography, *of course* it was the oddest meaning that stumped me. ;)
Procrustean bed, idem sonans, hob, backcap, quango, cheap-jack, pantechnicon, churrigueresco, chopfallen, maritorious, supererogation, catimini and 212 more...
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Necessary?
"Words are very..."
The above was the original description for this list. Unfortunately, it doesn't convey much about the list contents.
I'm leaving you to draw your own conclusions abo...supererogation, fruitcake, unbeknownst, melifluous, bane, cavy, unnecessary, lyrical, question, undertow, weapon, arduous and 200 more...
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A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Words gathered while reading A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce.
refectory, soutane, ha-ha, jewelly, girt, centenary, collywobbles, coadjutor, catafalque, beeftea, pierhead, bedad and 235 more...
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Wordie/Wordnik Curio Cabinet
Oddments culled from my "main" lists that belong in a display cabinet of their own, plus sundry other curiosities. :-)
zeugma, ziggurat, xiphoid, xeric, whizgigging, whangdoodle, viviparous, vivific, vinolent, verjuice, vellicate, velleity and 1193 more...
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Look Busy
Get to work!
ergophobia, elucubrate, karoshi, dogsbody, forswonk, moil, deft, assiduous, panurgic, paperasserie, bumf, blackleg and 91 more...
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nuwerdna's Words
smegma, defenestration, nubile, zeitgeist, stochastic, ergodic, stability, maudlin, recursion, aversion, agent, set and 239 more...
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rememberers
prolix, ageusia, animadversion, anodyne, antic, arabesque, beadle, brachymetropia, colophon, desquamation, diaphoresis, diegesis and 3255 more...
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S
solicitous, sobriquet, shibboleth, sybaritic, solicit, sordid, scornful, succulent, savor, sangfroid, stultify, supererogation and 15 more...
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Found Words
cavil, hoary, doppelganger, luddite, frippery, kerfluffle, inspissate, ennui, lagniappe, milquetoast, skullduggery, odsbodkins and 26 more...
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electriccounterpoint's list
Words I've tried to remember in the past and failed, or words I might want in the future
preprandial, hobson's choice, defenestrate, sähkö, backpfeifengesicht, exegesis, midrash, hrvatska, ljubljana, dirigisme, dirigiste, fatiloquent and 35 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for supererogation.
skipvia I'm surprised they didn't figure out a way to charge for that. Think indulgences. Nov 2, 2007
kewpid actions believed to form a reserve fund of merit that can be drawn on by prayer in favour of sinners. Nov 2, 2007