surrender

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /səˈren.də/, US /səˈren.dɚ/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Anglo-Norman surrender, from Old French surrendre (“to give up, deliver over”),^[2][3][4] from sur-, over, and rendre, to give back (see render).^[2][3][5] The noun is the French infinitive used as a noun, and the verb was formed from it.^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

In law, a giving up of an estate or interest in property: the noun 1423, the verb 1441 (surrendouren).^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

NODE notes that it was chiefly legal at first.^[6] The spelling surrender appears in Middle English in 1473.^[3] The giving of someone into lawful custody is from the late 15th century,^[2] and the giving up of something or oneself into another's power from about 1485.^[7] To give oneself up, especially as a prisoner, is from the 1580s.^[2] The surrender of letters patent is from 1557, surrender to bail from 1710, and a bankrupt's surrender of his property from 1745.^[7] In Banffshire Scots a surrender was speed, a great rate.^[8]

Timeline

• 1423 – the noun, in law.^[3]
• 1441 – the verb.^[3]
• 1473 – spelling surrender.^[3]
• c. 1485 – giving up into another's power.^[7]
• 1580s – to give oneself up.^[2]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To give up possession or control of something to another under pressure.
2. To give oneself up, as to an enemy.
3. To give up in favour of another; to relinquish.
4. To give oneself over to an emotion or influence.

Noun

1. The act of surrendering.
2. (law) The delivery of a person into legal custody, or the giving up of an estate.

Word family

• surrenderer
• unsurrendered
• unsurrendering
• nonsurrender
• presurrender
• prosurrender

Related words

• render
• rendition
• rent

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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)