Other forms: excesses
Excess is an amount beyond what is proper or needed. More than enough, and more than is good for anybody.
It takes of, and the phrase in excess of simply means more than, which is a formal way of stating a figure. As an adjective it means surplus, so excess baggage costs money at an airport. British insurance has a precise sense, since the excess is the first part of any claim you pay yourself. The adjective excessive is a criticism, and doing something to excess means overdoing it.
Excess is a going out. Latin excessus meant stepping beyond, and also a loss of self-possession, which is why Middle English exces could mean ecstasy as easily as too much.
Latin
excessus — a going out, loss of self-possession
Old French
exces
Middle English
exces — excess, ecstasy
English, today
excess
Built from
From Middle English exces (“excess, ecstasy”), from Old French exces, from Latin excessus (“a going out, loss of self-possession”), from excedere, excessum (“to go out, go beyond”). See exceed.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA