Exceedances
« previous post | next post »
The word "exceedances" occurs 7 times in this relatively short article:
"Lead in water at Perth Children's Hospital no risk to patient safety, WA health minister says"
Mya Kordic, ABC News (Australia), 9/10/25
Here are two examples:
"Exceedances are decommissioned while they undergo remediation," Ms Hammat said.
"I have been advised by the Chief Health Officer that there is no risk to the safety of patients or staff as a result of these exceedances."
If you think some other words would have been more appropriate, what would they be?
Selected readings
- Wiktionary
- Collins — with examples of usage
[Thanks to Chips Mackinolty]
AntC said,
September 11, 2025 @ 8:02 pm
I hadn't come across the word before, but I can understand how it would become a term of art, to mean an instance of exceeding some norm. Used extensively in this 1991 document, page 41 on, usually as a qualifier 'exceedance probability'.
(Since the Perth article is about drinking water quality, I was looking for something similar wrt Christchurch: after the earthquakes, our usually pristine deep-well water supply became contaminated/exceeded safety norms, so had to be chlorinated.) "Exceedances" plural appears in a 2020 Aug 14 document from the City Council re hydrographic responses to the changed subterranean geology.
Must be some sort of shorthand for 'instances of equipment failing to operate within the norms'.
Andreas Johansson said,
September 12, 2025 @ 8:26 am
The shade of Iain M. Banks suggests "excession".
pfb said,
September 12, 2025 @ 11:20 am
"Exceedance" in this context is technical/legal jargon, having a precise meaning. It's not merely "exceeding some norm", but a violating a legally-defined requirement, demanding a specific response as a matter of law. You see "exceedance" used like this in regulatory licenses. Substituting a different word might make it more "readable", but might well make it less accurate.
"Variance" has similar connotations when used as a technical/legal term in regulatory contexts.
I'm reminded of an old Dilbert cartoon, in which the pointy-haired boss reviews Dilbert's code, complaining about his overuse of semicolons.
Michael Watts said,
September 15, 2025 @ 1:59 am
Why "excession"? Excess is well established as the noun form of the verb exceed. It seems to have come from a Latin fourth-declension noun excessus that is indeed derived from a form of the verb excedo, but not by applying the -io(n) suffix.
Michael Watts said,
September 15, 2025 @ 2:02 am
(For example, here's sense 1(a) of excess in Merriam-Webster:
I would struggle to characterize the uses of exceedance given above as meaning anything other than "the state, or an instance, of surpassing specified limits".)