different between excess vs rankness

English

Etymology

From Middle English exces (“excess, ecstasy”), from Old French exces, from Latin excessus (“a going out, loss of self-possession”), from excedere, excessum (“to go out, go beyond”). See exceed.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?k?s?s/, /?k?s?s/, /?k.?s?s/, /??ks?s/
• Rhymes: -?s

Noun

excess (countable and uncountable, plural excesses)

1. The state of surpassing or going beyond a limit; the state of being beyond sufficiency, necessity, or duty; more than what is usual or proper.
   • c. 1597, William Shakespeare, King John, act 4, scene 2:

     To gild refined gold, to paint the lily,

     To throw a perfume on the violet, . . .

     Is wasteful and ridiculous excess.

   • c. 1690, William Walsh, "Jealosy", in The Poetical Works of William Walsh (1797), page 19 (Google preview):

     That kills me with excess of grief, this with excess of joy.
2. The degree or amount by which one thing or number exceeds another; remainder.

3. An act of eating or drinking more than enough.
   • :

     And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess.

   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book III:

     Fair Angel, thy desire . . .

     . . . leads to no excess

     That reaches blame

4. (geometry) Spherical excess, the amount by which the sum of the three angles of a spherical triangle exceeds two right angles. The spherical excess is proportional to the area of the triangle.
5. (Britain, insurance) A condition on an insurance policy by which the insured pays for a part of the claim.

Synonyms

• (state of surpassing limits): See Thesaurus:excess
• (US, insurance): deductible

Antonyms

• deficiency

Derived terms

• in excess of
• spherical excess
• to excess

Related terms

• exceed
• excessive

Translations

Adjective

excess (not comparable)

1. More than is normal, necessary or specified.

Derived terms

• excess baggage
• excess kurtosis
• excess return
• nonexcess
• refractory anaemia with excess blasts

Verb

excess (third-person singular simple present excesses, present participle excessing, simple past and past participle excessed)

1. (US, transitive) To declare (an employee) surplus to requirements, such that he or she might not be given work.

See also

• usury

Further reading

• excess in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• excess in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Translations

English

Etymology

From rank +? -ness.

Noun

rankness (countable and uncountable, plural ranknesses)

1. The quality of being rank, of having a repulsive or pungent odor.
   • 1578, Raphael Holinshed et al., Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande, Volume I, Book 3, Chapter 1 “Of cattell kept for profit,” p. 222,^[1]

     […] the bowels of the beast are commonlie cast awaie because of their ranknesse […]

   • 1933, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, South Moon Under, Chapter 34,^[2]

     A match scratched and the sweet rankness of his corn-cob pipe drifted through the rooms.

2. Exuberant or uncontrolled growth.
   • 1706, John Dryden, “To my Dear Friend Mr. Congreve, On His Comedy, call’d, The Double-Dealer” in The Double Dealer by William Congreve, London: Jacob Tonson,^[3]

     Like Janus he the stubborn Soil manur’d,

     With Rules of Husbandry the Rankness cur’d:

     Tam’d us to Manners, when the Stage was rude;

     And boistrous English Wit, with Art indu’d.

   • 1847, Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights, Chapter 18,^[4]

     […] a wilderness of weeds, to be sure, whose rankness far over-topped their neglected growth; yet, notwithstanding, evidence of a wealthy soil, that might yield luxuriant crops under other and favourable circumstances.

   • 1970, Barry Unsworth, The Hide, New York: Norton, 1997, p. 139,^[5]

     […] briar and bramble shoots lay athwart one’s path with thorns like arrowheads often concealed in tangles of grass and willowherb and cow parsley, while underlying this rankness, like a reminder of a more elegant epoch, one was aware at times of Howard’s cultivation, rose and magnolia and peony continued to flower […]

3. (obsolete) Exuberance, excessiveness.
   • c. 1612, William Shakespeare and John Fletcher, Henry VIII, Act IV, Scene 1,^[6]

     First Gentleman. God save you, sir! where have you been broiling?

     Third Gentleman. Among the crowd i’ the Abbey; where a finger

     Could not be wedged in more: I am stifled

     With the mere rankness of their joy.

4. (obsolete) Insolence.
   • c. 1599, William Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act I, Scene 1,^[7]

     I will physic your rankness […]

Translations