oversum

English

Etymology

From over- +‎ sum.

Noun

oversum (plural oversums)

1. A whole that is more than the sum of its parts; superaddition.
   • 2004, Max-Planck-Institut für Ausländisches und Internationales Patent-, Urheber- und Wettbewerbsrecht, Max Planck series on Asian intellectual property law, page 8:

     The tradition consists in understanding a politically active unit as an oversum (that is, a super-additive entity): The whole is more than the sum of its parts.

   • 2004, Christoph Antons, Michael Blakeney, Christopher Heath, Intellectual Property Harmonisation Within ASEAN and APEC, page 6:

     It follows from this counterbalance of majority rule and inalienable absolutes within a given society that the latter is ordered according to the oversum principle: The whole is more than the sum of its parts.

   • 2006, Manfred O. Hinz, Helgard K. Patemann, The Shade of New Leaves, page 315:

     Democracy requires an oversum, a koiné, a res publica, a Genossenschaft, a commonwealth, a League such as the Iroquois, a Tewa-Pueblo, that is, an entity of which the citizens are members with membership duties and rights.

   • 2008, Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Abhandlungen: Issue 132, page 343:

     The Saxonian tradition does not know or rejects the cooperative, the oversum, or superaddition.

   • 2014, Bernd Lindemann, Mechanisms in World and Mind:

     Thus SB is an over-sum effect.

Verb

oversum (third-person singular simple present oversums, present participle oversumming, simple past and past participle oversummed)

1. To add up incorrectly, arriving at a total that is too large.
   • 1941, The Accountant's Magazine - Volume 45, page 314:

     In an account in the ledger, which has been ruled off as square, it is found that the credit side has been oversummed by £ 100.

   • 1996, Dan Vogel, Early Mormon Documents - Volume 1, page 287:

     and in measure your measure you always oversum — and now I have now come to tell you that this is the last time that I shall <never> never <shall> call again and you only want

   • 2014, Roy A. Chandler, J. R. Edwards, Recurring Issues in Auditing (RLE Accounting):

     Sometimes the totals are found to be short of the amounts entered in the Cash Book. In other cases, the sheets are found to be systematically oversummed; while again "dummy" mon may be inserted, or the calculations of the details of the pay may be overstated.