surfeit (n.)

early 14c., “excess quantity;” late 14c., “overindulgence,” from Old French sorfet “excess; arrogance” (Modern French surfait), noun use of past participle of surfaire “overdo,” from sur- “over” (see sur- (1)) + faire “do,” from Latin facere “to make, do” (from PIE root *dhe- “to set, put”).

surfeit (v.)

late 14c., intransitive, “indulge or feed to excess,” from surfeit (n.). Related: Surfeited; surfeiting. Transitive sense from 1590s.

Entries linking to surfeit

sur- (1)

word-forming element meaning “over, above, beyond, in addition,” especially in words from Anglo-French and Old French, from Old French sour-, sor-, sur-, from Latin super “above, over,” from PIE root *uper “over.”

*dhe- 

*dhē-, Proto-Indo-European root meaning “to set, put.”

It forms all or part of: abdomen; abscond; affair; affect (v.1) “make a mental impression on;” affect (v.2) “make a pretense of;” affection; amplify; anathema; antithesis; apothecary; artifact; artifice; beatific; benefice; beneficence; beneficial; benefit; bibliothec; bodega; boutique; certify; chafe; chauffeur; comfit; condiment; confection; confetti; counterfeit; deed; deem; deface; defeasance; defeat; defect; deficient; difficulty; dignify; discomfit; do (v.); doom; -dom; duma; edifice; edify; efface; effect; efficacious; efficient; epithet; facade; face; facet; facial; -facient; facile; facilitate; facsimile; fact; faction (n.1) “political party;” -faction; factitious; factitive; factor; factory; factotum; faculty; fashion; feasible; feat; feature; feckless; fetish; -fic; fordo; forfeit; -fy; gratify; hacienda; hypothecate; hypothesis; incondite; indeed; infect; justify; malefactor; malfeasance; manufacture; metathesis; misfeasance; modify; mollify; multifarious; notify; nullify; office; officinal; omnifarious; orifice; parenthesis; perfect; petrify; pluperfect; pontifex; prefect; prima facie; proficient; profit; prosthesis; prothesis; purdah; putrefy; qualify; rarefy; recondite; rectify; refectory; sacrifice; salmagundi; samadhi; satisfy; sconce; suffice; sufficient; surface; surfeit; synthesis; tay; ticking (n.); theco-; thematic; theme; thesis; verify.

It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Sanskrit dadhati “puts, places;” Avestan dadaiti “he puts;” Old Persian ada “he made;” Hittite dai- “to place;” Greek tithenai “to put, set, place;” Latin facere “to make, do; perform; bring about;” Lithuanian dėti “to put;” Polish dziać się “to be happening;” Russian delat’ “to do;” Old High German tuon, German tun, Old English don “to do.”

Harper, Douglas. “Etymology of surfeit.” Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/word/surfeit. Accessed 4 January, 2023.

Surfeit water 

An old name for a ‘water’ used to cure ‘surfeits’, i.e. the effects of gluttony.

Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase & Fable (19 ed.) Edited by: Susie Dent

Brewer’s: Surfeit Water

Cordial water to cure surfeits.

“Water that cures surfeits. A little cold distilled poppywater is the true surfeit water.” —Locke.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894

infoplease.com

Medical Recipes: Surfeit water

Diet and medicine are clearly interconnected during the Middle Ages and in the early modern period. Furthermore, Thirsk claims that plants served two purposes, as food and as medicine, and “these two separate interests mingled instinctively in the minds of contemporaries whenever they sat down to eat” (2007: 287). [1]

This explains why culinary recipes are recorded in early modern medical manuscripts, since the frontier between food and medicine is not clearly cut. Quite often the reader of these manuscripts find instructions on how to prepare surfeit water, which, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is «a medicinal drink taken after excessive consumption of food or drink; an indigestion remedy».

This condition must have been particularly common among some social classes, since recipes on surfeit water are frequently documented. Thus, in Glasgow University Library, Hunter MS 93[2], one finds a recipe for surfeit water.

Put three quarts of Anniseeds water into a new earthen glased pot or pipkin with soe many red feild poppies as can be wett in it when they grow pale straine away the water and if it be high Coulored as Alligant put into it 3 ounces of browne sugar candie and a quarter of a Ounce of Alcarmes afterwards keep it close stopt in a Glasse if the first poppies doe not sufficiently staine ye water put in more before you add ye two last Ingredients.

Giue one or two or three spoonfull of it as ye degree of ye surfeit requiers and ye age and strength of ye patient permitts./

[1]Thirsk, Joan. 2007. Food in Early Modern England: “Phases, Fads, Fashion 1500-1760”. London: Continuum.

[2] For a whole study of the contents of Hunter MS 93, see Ortega-Barrera, Ivalla. 2014. Un recetario inedito del s. XVI en la Biblioteca Hunteriana de Glasgow: edición y estudio. Saarbrücken: Editorial Académica.

https://medicalmanuscript.wordpress.com/medical-recipes-surfeit-water/

Surfeit water

A medicinal WATER designed, as its name suggests, to alleviate the effects of overindulgence in eating or drinking. Recipes for these WATERs abound, many of them given the imprimatur of a famous name, such as ‘King Charles II’s Surfeit Water’ [Recipes (Smith)]. The essential ingredients seem to have been alcohol in the form of BRANDY or AQUA VITAE, dried fruits and POPPY flowers, such as the RED POPPY used by John Pechey [Pechey (1694a)].

OED earliest date of use: 1633

Found in unit of GALLON

See also POPPY WATER, STOMACH WATER.
Sources: Inventories (late), Recipes.
References: Pechey (1694a).

Nancy Cox and Karin Dannehl, ‘Sugar loaf – Surfeit water’, in Dictionary of Traded Goods and Commodities 1550-1820 (Wolverhampton, 2007), British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/traded-goods-dictionary/1550-1820/sugar-loaf-surfeit-water [accessed 4 January 2023].

Fermented liquors : a treatise on brewing, distilling, rectifying, and manufacturing of sugars, wines, spirits, and all known liquors, including cider and vinegar. Also, hundreds of valuable directions in medicine, metallurgy, pyrotechny, and the arts in general

by Feuchtwanger, Lewis, 1805-1876