Overweigh

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /əʊvə(ɹ)ˈweɪ/

Definitions

1. To exceed in weight compared to another object, thus having a greater mass
2. To have a weight that surpasses that of another item
3. When one thing carries a heavier burden compared to another

Etymology: "Overweigh" is a plain compound: the prefix "over-", meaning "above" or "beyond" a measure, attached to "weigh". It meant to outweigh, or to exceed in heaviness, and its earliest recorded appearance is in the Ancrene Wisse, a Middle English guide for anchoresses, which uses it in the phrase "luue ouerweið hit", roughly "love outweighs it". The sense there is moral rather than physical: one thing's weight is judged against another's, and love tips the balance. That figurative use of weighing one consideration against another is the older centre of the word, while the literal sense of being heavier than something physical sits alongside it. The word is now uncommon, with "outweigh" usually preferred in modern English, though "overweigh" survives in the same comparative sense.