[Python-Dev] r88676 - peps/trunk/pep-0385.txt

[Steven D'Aprano]

Antoine Pitrou wrote:
> Le lundi 28 février 2011 à 13:56 -0600, Benjamin Peterson a écrit :
>> 2011/2/28 Antoine Pitrou <solipsis at pitrou.net>:
>>> On Mon, 28 Feb 2011 13:36:11 -0500
>>> Terry Reedy <tjreedy at udel.edu> wrote:
>>>>> +  an existing branch.  The pusher then has to merge the superfetatory heads
>>>> 'superfetatory'? I have no idea of what this is, neither does
>>>> merriam-webster.com ;-).
>>> There are some Google hits, though... Not sure if they are of people
>>> making the same mistakes as I do ;)
>> Endly, perhaps it will be adopted. Did you mean "superfluous" though?
> 
> I really meant superfetatory (it's slightly different: superfluous is
> simply useless, while superfetatory implies that it's in excess).


My wife has a copy of the shorter Oxford English dictionary, so we 
looked it up. There's no listing for superfetatory, but there is 
"superfetation":

1. a second conception occurring during pregnancy; the formation of a 
second fetus in a uterus already pregnant;
1b. botany the fertilization of the same ovule by two different kinds of 
pollen;
2. (figurative) additional or super-abundant production or occurrence; 
the growth or accretion of one thing on another; and instance of this; 
an accretion; an excrescence.

She commented that sesquipedalian words like superfetation are probably 
either specialised jargon, or known by people like Clive James and very 
few others :)

I think that superfluous simply means "excess to requirements but merely 
useless", while superfetatory would imply harmfully in excess. In any 
case, it's a wonderful word and I will try to casually drop it into 
conversation every now and then to annoy people *wink*



-- 
Steven