Words: nimiety, n.
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.PERHAPS THE most congenially virulent of all ailments is biblioholism, subject of an American bestseller by Tom Raabe.
"The habitual longing to purchase, read, store, admire and consume books in excess" is the sub-title, something into which Raabe was lured by one store's "nimiety of overstuffed chairs." From late Latin, it means an excess.
Early examples are religiously inclined, then less so, as in some table- talk by Coleridge, whose view was that "there is a nimiety - a too-muchness - in all Germans."
The OED has it last used in 1892, when the Illustrated London News lamented the nimiety of modern poetry, "the tendency to dilute the general effect by repetition". A word to revive, sparingly.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments