surgery

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈsɜː.dʒər.i/, US /ˈsɝː.dʒɚ.i/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English sirgirie, surgerie,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French surgerie, a contraction of serurgerie, cirurgerie,^[2][4][5] from serurgien “surgeon”,^[4][6] ultimately from Latin chīrūrgia,^[2][3] from Ancient Greek χειρουργία (kheirourgía, “surgery, handiwork”),^[2][3] from kheirourgós “working or done by hand”, from χείρ (kheír, “hand”) and érgon “work”.^[2][3][5] It is related to surgeon and chiropractor.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The work of a surgeon, medical treatment by operation, such as cutting and setting fractures: about 1300 in Etymonline,^[2] the 14th century in the OED and Merriam-Webster.^[7][8]

Semantic evolution

Figurative uses are from 1628.^[7] In Britain, a room where a doctor receives patients is a surgery by 1846,^[2][7] which led to the session at which a Member of Parliament or councillor meets constituents, by 1951,^[2][7] later extended to other free consultations with lawyers or accountants (1973).^[7][2] In mathematics, the topological alteration of manifolds is surgery from 1961.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – surgical treatment.^[2]
• 1628 – figuratively.^[7]
• 1846 – a doctor's consulting room.^[2][7]
• 1951 – an MP's surgery.^[2][7]
• 1961 – in mathematics.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The branch of medicine that treats injury, deformity and disease by operating with the hands or instruments.
2. A surgical operation or procedure.
3. An operating room or a surgeon's work.
4. (British) A doctor's or dentist's consulting room, or the hours when patients are seen.
5. (British) A session at which a member of parliament or councillor meets constituents.

Word family

• surgeon
• radiosurgery
• presurgery
• surgical
• chemosurgery
• cryosurgery
• electrosurgery
• microsurgery

Related words

• chiropractor
• organ
• work

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster