different between necessitousness vs necessary

English

Etymology

From necessitous +? -ness.

Noun

necessitousness (uncountable)

1. The state or condition of impoverishment; material need, especially of an urgent nature.
   • 1716, Thomas Browne, Christian Morals, 2nd edition edited by Samuel Johnson, London: J. Payne, 1756, Part I, p. 13,^[1]

     […] give thou also before asking; that is, where want is silently clamorous, and men’s necessities not their tongues do loudly call for thy mercies. For though sometimes necessitousness be dumb, or misery speak not out, yet true charity is sagacious, and will find out hints for beneficence.

   • 1973, Jacob Ziegel, "Recent Developments in Canadian Consumer Credit Law," The Modern Law Review, vol. 36, no. 5, pp. 495-6:

     If necessitousness implies a pressing need for the money and a lack of ability to bargain over rates, then it would seem the modern consumer is not in a very different position from his pre-war cousin.

2. (rare) The state or condition of being necessary or essential; necessity.
   • 1946, Walter Firey, "Ecological Considerations in Planning for Rurban Fringes," American Sociological Review, vol. 11, no. 4, p. 413:

     Some of the forces incline the land toward agricultural use, others incline it toward residential use. . . . There is no economic necessitousness that would dictate one or the other use.

Usage notes

• Necessitude, necessitousness, necessitation, necessariness are all nouns closely related to necessity, but they tend to have narrower ranges of usage than the term necessity. The principal sense of necessitude and necessitousness is impoverishment, but the plural form of the former (necessitudes) denotes a set of circumstances which is inevitable or unavoidable. Necessitation is used to suggest necessity as a philosophical or cosmic principle. Necessariness tends to be used to stress a direct connection to the adjective necessary.

Related terms

• necessitous

English

Etymology

From Middle English necessarye, from Old French necessaire, from Latin necess?rius (“unavoidable, inevitable, required”), variant of necesse (“unavoidable, inevitable”), probably from ne or non cessum, from the perfect passive participle of c?d? (“yield; avoid, withdraw”); see cede.

Older use as a noun in reference to an outhouse or lavatory under the influence of English and Latin necess?rium, a medieval term for the place for monks' "unavoidable" business, usually located behind or attached to monastic dormitories.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /?n?s??s??i/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?n?s?s??/

• (nonstandard) IPA^(key): /?n?s??i/

Adjective

necessary (comparative necessarier or more necessary, superlative necessariest or most necessary)

1. Required, essential, whether logically inescapable or needed in order to achieve a desired result or avoid some penalty.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:requisite

   Antonym: unnecessary

   • c. 1605, William Shakespeare & al., The Life of Tymon of Athens, Act III, Scene vi, ll. 1258-60:

     1.Sen. ...The faults Bloody:
     'Tis necessary he should dye:
     Nothing imboldens sinne so much, as Mercy.

2. Unavoidable, inevitable.

   Synonyms: inevitable, natural

   Antonyms: evitable, incidental, impossible

   • 1599, William Shakespeare, The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar, Act II, Scene ii, ll. 1020-25:

     Cæs. Cowards dye many times before their deaths,
     The valiant neuer taste of death but once:
     Of all the Wonders that I yet haue heard,
     It seemes to me most strange that men should feare,
     Seeing that death, a necessary end
     Will come, when it will come.

3. (obsolete) Determined, involuntary: acting from compulsion rather than free will.
   • 1871, Richard Holt Hutton, Essays, Vol. I, p. 53:

     But that a necessary being should give birth to a being with any amount, however limited, of moral freedom, is infinitely less conceivable than that parents of the insect or fish type should give birth to a perfect mammal.

Derived terms

• necessarily
• necessary condition

Related terms

Translations

Noun

necessary (plural necessaries)

1. (Britain, archaic euphemistic, usually with the definite article) A place to do the "necessary" business of urination and defecation: an outhouse or lavatory.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:bathroom

Related terms

• necessary house; necessary place, necessary stool, necessary vault (obsolete)

References

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