surfeit

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 12, 2024 is: surfeit \SER-fut\ noun Surfeit is a formal word that refers to an amount or supply that is too much or more than you need. It is synonymous with the word [excess](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/excess). // The organization ended up with a surfeit of volunteers who simply got in each other's way. [See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/surfeit) Examples: "Pet owners can have a tougher time finding apartments because of the surfeit of landlords who don't allow dogs, cats or other animals in their buildings." — Andrew J. Campa, The Los Angeles Times, 22 Feb. 2024 Did you know? There is an abundance—you could almost say a surfeit—of English words that come from the Latin verb facere, meaning "to do." The connection to facere is fairly obvious for words spelled with "fic," "fac," or "fec," such as [sacrifice](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sacrifice), [fact](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fact), and [infect](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/infect). For words like [stupefy](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stupefy) (a modification of the Latin word stupefacere) and [hacienda](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hacienda) (originally, in Old Spanish and Latin, facienda) the facere relation is not so apparent. As for surfeit, a "c" was dropped along the path that led from Latin through Anglo-French, where facere became faire ("to do") and sur- was added to make the verb surfaire, meaning "to overdo." It is the Anglo-French noun surfet ("excess"), however, that Middle English borrowed, eventually settling on the spelling surfeit.