Unnecessary or not required. Something that could be avoided or is superfluous.
From Middle English nedeles, combining 'need' (from Old English nied) with the suffix '-less' meaning 'without.' The construction follows the typical Germanic pattern of forming negative adjectives.
The phrase 'needless to say' is actually quite ironic - if something is truly needless to say, why are we saying it? This linguistic quirk shows how we use redundancy for emphasis rather than efficiency.
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