Paddy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On May 13, 12:13 am, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Alex Martelli) wrote: > > > As somebody else alredy pointed out, the lambda is supererogatory (to > > say the least). > > What a wonderful new word! > I did not know what supererogatory meant, and hoped it had nothing to > do with Eros :-) > Answers.com gave me a meaning synonymous with superfluous, which > I think is what was meant here,
Kind of, yes, cfr <http://www.bartleby.com/61/60/S0896000.html> . > but Chambers gave a wonderful > definition where they say it is from the RC Church practice of doing > more > devotions than are necessary so they can be 'banked' for distribution > to others (I suspect, that in the past it may have been for a fee or > a favour). "Doing more than necessary" may be wonderful in a devotional context, but not necessarily in an engineering one (cfr also, for a slightly different slant on "do just what's needed", <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Ain't_Gonna_Need_It>). > Supererogatory, my word of the day. Glad you liked it!-) Alex -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
