sur-

13 February 2026

The other day I was wondering about the word surname. What is the sur-? prefix. The etymology, while perhaps not immediately obvious, is quite straightforward; the sur- is a French variation on the Latin super, meaning above or beyond. It comes to us, like many French roots, from the Normans. So a surname is one’s second or higher name, and the word dates to the fourteenth century.

But there are other sur- words, some like surname, borrowed whole from French (Anglo-Norman surnum, early fourteenth century), while others have been formed in English:

surcharge, an additional charge, originally a verb (fifteenth century) borrowed from the Old French surcharger and turned into a noun in English by 1601

survive, to live beyond or after (fifteenth century), from the Anglo-Norman survivre, which was formed from the Latin vivere, to live

surpass, to go over or beyond (sixteenth century), from the French surpasser.

Sources:

Anglo-Norman Dictionary, AND2 Phase 5, 2018–21, s.v. sur2.

Oxford English Dictionary Online, 1918, s.v. sur-, prefix, surname, n.

Image credit: Pymouss44, 2024. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.