Etymologically
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surgery

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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
  • 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