non-necessaryadj.n.

1621 R. Burton Anat. Melancholy i. ii. iv. i. 189 Of those remote,..Necessary causes, I haue sufficiently discoursed in the precedent member, the Non-necessary follow.

1868 S. J. Baird Hist. New School 83 This was their only recourse to the distinction between necessary and non-necessary articles.

1878 Mind 3 418 Necessary and contingent..are here called related terms, contingent being regarded as equivalent to non-necessary, and non-necessary to contingent.

1915 Mind 24 297 The arbitrary or non-necessary character of the relation [between phenomena] is one on which he [sc. Berkeley] is never tired of insisting.

1965 Jrnl. Philos. 62 473 The modalist escapes by insisting that there be no nonnecessary premises to an argument whose conclusion is necessary.

2000 Amer. Jrnl. Polit. Sci. 44 855/1 The basic principle..consists in comparing the ‘region of necessity’ with the nonnecessary condition range of X and Y values.

1675 A. Woodhead Disc. Necessity Church Guides ii. 10 Of Teaching the people, if he will, as to non-necessaries.

1754 Ess. Manning Fleet 27 The Luxuries, or Non-necessaries of Life.

1915 Amer. Econ. Rev. 5 943 The imposition of privilege taxes upon the manufacturers of and dealers in alcoholic drinks and tobaccos as a method of taxing the consumers of these non-necessaries.

1940 Econ. Jrnl. 50 522 The sums spent on non-necessaries..appeared great enough to have made possible some economy.

1995 St. Louis (Missouri) Post-Dispatch (Nexis) 25 Mar. We need to distinguish between necessary and non-necessary expenses... In the case of non-necessaries, the advertised notice wouldn't be needed.