Make Your Point > Archived Issues > NIMIETY
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Sometimes, maybe on Thanksgiving, you eat way too much. You've got a stomach ache, and a food baby, and some serious questions for yourself about restraint and third helpings of pie.
You're feeling nimiety, which is, as one scholar in the 1980s put it, the "aversive experience of glutting caused by intake exceeding clearance capacity."
We reach nimiety after ignoring our sa__ety signals, our signals that say, "hey, you're full now."
And as we'll see in a moment, nimiety can be any instance of stuffing in way, way too much, not just food.
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make your point with...
"NIMIETY"
In Latin, nimis means "too much."
And in English, a nimiety of something is an amount of it that's too much. In other words, a nimiety is an excess or an overabundance.
Pronunciation:
nuh MY uh dee
Part of speech:
Noun, both the countable kind ("a nimiety of rain," "their nimieties of expression")
and the uncountable kind ("it suffers from nimiety").
Other forms:
Just the plural, "nimieties."
How to use it:
Most of the time, a casual, common word like "glut," "excess," or "overabundance" will be more appropriate than the rare, flashy, scholarly-sounding "nimiety."
But when the situation calls for it--that is, when you're being emphatic and scholarly, or when you're going for a silly pretense of emphasis and scholarship--talk about a nimiety of this or that, or a nimiety in something, or someone's nimieties, or about someone or something approaching or reaching a nimiety, etc.
examples:
"The humdrum levels of conversation he permits, the dreary nimieties imposed on the reader!"
— James Anderson Russell, Romance and Realism: Trends in Belgo-Dutch Prose Literature, 1959
"If I start folding a fifty-piece origami Easter scene, perhaps I am exhibiting an unhealthy nimiety of interest in clever holiday crafts."
— Lynn Bowen Walker, Queen of the Castle: 52 Weeks of Encouragement for the Uninspired, Domestically Challenged, Or Just Plain Tired Homemaker, 2006
has this page helped you understand "nimiety"?
study it:
Explain the meaning of "nimiety" without saying "redundancy" or "superfluity."
try it out:
Fill in the blanks: "It should be stripped down, this nimiety of (some quality or thing) in (some profession, social conversation, or sphere of interest)."
Serious example: "It should be stripped down, this nimiety of one-upmanship in the conversation on social justice."
Silly example: "It should be stripped down, this nimiety of Latin sesquipedalianism in English."
before you review, play:
Spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—let your working memory empty out first.
Our game this month is "Big Bang Thicket."
In each issue, hack your way through the polysyllabic title of an episode of The Big Bang Theory, and use your knowledge of vocabulary to answer the question about what happens in that episode.
From the previous issue:
In "The Earworm Reverberation," Sheldon has an earworm: a song stuck in his head. Does he play this earworm on a piano over and over, or does he attempt to ban it from local radio stations?
Answer:
He plays it over and over. A reverberation is an echo: a repeated sound.
Try this one today:
In "The Troll Manifestation," does an Internet troll make public disparaging statements or sow discord on the sly?
review this word:
1. One opposite of NIMIETY is
A. VIVACITY.
B. GRAVITY.
C. PAUCITY.
2. According to Coleridge, German poetry has a nimiety, a "_____."
A. too-richness
B. too-muchness
C. too-staunchness
a final word:
I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.
I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.
From my blog:
36 ways to study words.
Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.
Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.
Sometimes, maybe on Thanksgiving, you eat way too much. You've got a stomach ache, and a food baby, and some serious questions for yourself about restraint and third helpings of pie.
"NIMIETY" In Latin, nimis means "too much."
"The humdrum levels of conversation he permits, the dreary nimieties imposed on the reader!"
Explain the meaning of "nimiety" without saying "redundancy" or "superfluity."
Fill in the blanks: "It should be stripped down, this nimiety of (some quality or thing) in (some profession, social conversation, or sphere of interest)."
Spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—let your working memory empty out first.
1. One opposite of NIMIETY is
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