supernumerary

noun

1. A person who works in a group, association, or public office without forming part of the regular staff (the numerary).

   “The judge was a supernumerary, helping the regular judges whenever there was a surplus amount of work.”

   “The Officers, Non-Commissioned Officers, Bombardiers, Fifers, Gunners, Private Men, and Boys of the Royal Marines belonging to Her Majesty's Ships or Vessels, whether entered on the Ship's Books as part of the complement, or borne as supernumeraries, except when borne for a passage for service on shore, shall be considered entitled to the same advantages as the rest of the Ship's Company.”

   “What are the supernumeraries? upon whose report are they employed?— […] [I]f it is temporary employment, or for a temporary situation only, as occasion may require, such as the supernumeraries’ situations, for instance, these are looked upon as temporary appointments, although, from the great increase in our business, they have been in some respects permanent.”

   “Hospital Staff.—To be Assistant Surgeons to the Forces. – Assistant Surgeons Angus John Mackay, Supernumerary in the 1st Foot; Albert Hawkins, Supernumerary in the 4th Foot; […]”

   “After this general training the apprentices are usually employed for a year or two as supernumeraries, being engaged to a large extent on special enquiries, a type of work well suited to rounding off their training and also to assisting both the company and the men to ascertain the type of work for which they are best suited.”

2. An extra or walk-on, often non-speaking, in a film or play; a spear carrier.

   “[A] minor actor or supernumerary often has a better opportunity to watch great actors than the great actors themselves.”

   “Though little is known about Noble Luke Usher before his first recorded performance in Washington, D.C., in 1800, it is certain that he made the rounds of the eastern theatres as a supernumerary before as well as after that year.”

3. Something which is beyond the prescribed or standard amount or number.

   “On each side the glass hung one of the large engravings; another over the secretary, facing the window, and the fourth, which for some time seemed a supernumerary, over the door.”

   “Ideally, the surgery is timed so that removal of the supernumerary tooth does not interfere with permanent tooth development. The earlier the supernumerary can be removed, however, the more likely it is that the permanent teeth will erupt normally. Surgery to remove a supernumerary is often complicated, especially if there are multiple supernumerary teeth or if access to the supernumerary tooth is limited. These patients are appropriately referred to a specialist.”

4. An animal which has not formed a pair bond and is therefore single.

   “The best evidence so far that social supernumeraries are physically capable of bettering their lot concerns not rodents but birds.”

   “There are differences in the composition of the social group [of certain birds] such as whether one or more sex provides help, and the stability of the associations between supernumeraries and the dominant breeders.”

5. A married man or woman who is a secular member of Opus Dei, a Roman Catholic religious institution.

   ““Supernumeraries”, the bulk of Opus Dei members, can marry and live in their own homes, with slightly fewer spiritual obligations.”

adj

1. (not-comparable)Greater in number than.

   “This method applies to the observation of angles, usually obtained by repetitions; and instead of equating directions, as in the first method, its object is to furnish the most probable values for the several observed angles from a supernumerary number of angles.”

2. (not-comparable)Beyond the prescribed or standard amount or number; excess, extra.

   “I believe a hive, or swarm, has but one queen, at least I have never found more than one in a swarm, or in an old hive in the winter; and probably this is what constitutes a hive; for when there are two queens, it is likely that a division may begin to take place. Supernumerary queens are mentioned by Riem, who asserts he has seen them killed by the labourers, as well as the males.”

   “[T]he same agreeable and mild flavour can be imparted, as far as human experience has yet gone, by rennet, of which the basis is the coagulated milk in the stomachs of calves and lambs. The number of stomachs prepared must of course depend upon the number of cheeses to be made in a season, but prudence suggests the expedience of always having a supernumerary number.”

   “It is strange that, long as the College of Physicians and its regulations have been before the medical world, so little should be known as to the history and qualifications of the class called Extra-Licentiates. […] [M]any imagine that these physicians are supernumerary, over and above a certain number assigned to the Licentiates.”

3. (not-comparable, specifically)Beyond the prescribed or standard amount or number; excess, extra.

   “a supernumerary nipple; a supernumerary tooth”

   “It [the term disk] means a supernumerary organ, different from the stamens or petals, and originating at the base of one or other of them. Nothing can well be more variable in its nature than this disk; in the Mignonette it is, as you see, a one-sided, hairy lobe; […]”

   “There are two types of pulmonary arteries: conventional arteries that accompany airways and branch with them, and supernumerary arteries, which branch off the conventional ones at right angles and supply airspaces immediately adjacent to the bronchovascular tree.”

   ““Their aesthetic, if you haven't noticed, is about benign skin cancers, supernumerary nipples. Conventional tattoos belong firmly among the iconics of the hegemon. […]””

4. (not-comparable)Beyond what is necessary; redundant.

   “Resolved, that the Curators be authorized to exchange with other societies or individuals, such duplicate or supernumerary specimens of coins, medals, minerals and other articles as they may deem unnecessary to be retained in the Cabinet of the Society, for such other specimens, of equal value, as they may consider desirable to be added to the Society's present collection; […]”