necessary

Meanings

Adjective

• Required, essential, whether logically inescapable or needed in order to achieve a desired result or avoid some penalty.
• Unavoidable, inevitable.
• Determined, involuntary: acting from compulsion rather than free will.

Noun

• A place to do the "necessary" business of urination and defecation: an outhouse or lavatory.
• Necessity.

Origin

• From Middle English necessarye, from Old French necessaire, from Latin necessārius ("unavoidable, inevitable, required"), variant of necesse, probably from ne or non cessus, from the perfect passive participle of cēdō; 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.