Etimology
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.
adjective
necessary (comparative necessarier or more necessary, superlative necessariest or most necessary)
Required, essential, whether logically inescapable or needed in order to achieve a desired result or avoid some penalty.
Unavoidable, inevitable.
(obsolete) Determined, involuntary: acting from compulsion rather than free will.
Examples
Synonyms: see Thesaurus:requisite
Antonym: unnecessary
Although I wished to think that all was false, it was yet necessary that I, who thus thought, must in some sense exist.
It is absolutely necessary that you call and confirm your appointment.
1.Sen. ...The faults Bloody:'Tis necessary he should dye:Nothing imboldens sinne so much, as Mercy.
Synonyms: inevitable, natural
Antonyms: evitable, incidental, impossible
If it is absolutely necessary to use public computers, you should plan ahead and forward your e-mail to a temporary, disposable account.
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 endWill come, when it will come.
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.
Related words
related terms
necessariness
necessitate
necessitation
necessitousness
necessitude
necessity
noun
necessary (plural necessaries or necessarys)
(chiefly UK, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maine, archaic, euphemistic, usually with the definite article) A place to do the "necessary" business of urination and defecation: an outhouse or lavatory.
(obsolete) Necessity.
Examples
Synonyms: see Thesaurus:bathroom
It soon became fashionable for even the poorest families to have a necessary not far from their cabin. […] The more affluent settlers painted their necessarys in bright colors and carved their names on the doors.
[…] loss of that whole dominion of New England, and consequently of their Majesties' other American Plantations, endangered not only by the want of provisions, but by the many ships, vessels, seamen and other necessarys in New England, ...
Related words
related terms
necessary house; necessary place, necessary stool, necessary vault (obsolete)