necessary

From Middle English necessarye, from Old French necessaire, from Latin necessārius (“unavoidable, inevitable, required”), variant of necesse (“unavoidable, inevitable”), probably from ne or non cessum, from the perfect passive participle of cēdō (“yield; avoid, withdraw”); see cede.

Older use as a noun in reference to an outhouse or lavatory under the influence of English and Latin necessārium, a medieval term for the place for monks' "unavoidable" business, usually located behind or attached to monastic dormitories.

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈnɛsəˌsɛɹi/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈnɛsəsɹɪ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• (nonstandard) IPA^(key): /ˈnɛsəɹi/

necessary (comparative more necessary, superlative most necessary)

1. Required, essential, whether logically inescapable or needed in order to achieve a desired result or avoid some penalty.

   Although I wished to think that all was false, it was yet necessary that that I, who thus thought, must in some sense exist.

   It is absolutely necessary that you call and confirm your appointment.

   • c. 1605, William Shakespeare & al., The Life of Tymon of Athens, Act III, Scene vi, ll. 1258-60:

     1.Sen. ...The faults Bloody:
     'Tis necessary he should dye:
     Nothing imboldens sinne so much, as Mercy.

2. Unavoidable, inevitable.

   If it is absolutely necessary to use public computers, you should plan ahead and forward your e-mail to a temporary, disposable account.

   • 1599, William Shakespeare, The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar, Act II, Scene ii, ll. 1020-25:

     Cæs. Cowards dye many times before their deaths,
     The valiant neuer taste of death but once:
     Of all the Wonders that I yet haue heard,
     It seemes to me most strange that men should feare,
     Seeing that death, a necessary end
     Will come, when it will come.

3. (obsolete) Determined, involuntary: acting from compulsion rather than free will.
   • 1871, Richard Holt Hutton, Essays, Vol. I, p. 53:

     But that a necessary being should give birth to a being with any amount, however limited, of moral freedom, is infinitely less conceivable than that parents of the insect or fish type should give birth to a perfect mammal.

• (needed): See also Thesaurus:requisite
• (such as must be): inevitable, natural

• (needed): unnecessary
• (such as must be): evitable, incidental, impossible

• necessarily
• necessary condition

necessary (plural necessaries)

1. (Britain, archaic euphemistic, usually with the definite article) A place to do the "necessary" business of urination and defecation: an outhouse or lavatory.

• See Thesaurus:bathroom

• necessary house; necessary place, necessary stool, necessary vault (obsolete)

• necessary in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• necessary in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.