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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, fact, and infect. For words like stupefy (a modification of the Latin word stupefacere) and 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.
Synonyms
Examples of surfeit in a Sentence
Lisa Kennedy, The Denver Post, 24 Oct. 2024
Frankenweenie is Burton’s geeky salute to old Frankenstein flicks, but the wit of the homage can’t always overcome the director’s habitual inability to tell stories without a surfeit of strained gags and indifferent plotting.
—Will Leitch, Vulture, 9 Sep. 2024
Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 1 July 2023
Theatergoers, surfeited with entertainment options at home, have been less inclined to commit to season subscriptions, placing more pressure on programming to come up with sure-fire hits.
—Jessica Gelt, Los Angeles Times, 14 Apr. 2023
See all Example Sentences for surfeit 
Dictionary Entries Near surfeit
Cite this Entry
“Surfeit.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/surfeit. Accessed 26 Nov. 2024.
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