surrogate

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin surrogātus,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} the past participle of surrogō (“to put in another's place, substitute”),^[3][5][8][9] an assimilated variant of subrogō.^[2][4][10] This was formed from sub- (“under, in the place of”) and rogō (“to ask, propose”),^[3][5][7][6] so that a surrogate was etymologically someone "asked for" to take another's place, subrogō meaning to nominate an alternative candidate.^[7] Etymonline takes rogō as a figurative use of a verb meaning "to stretch out the hand", from Proto-Indo-European *reg- (“to move in a straight line”).^[3] The OED compares Italian surrogato and Old French surrogué.^[2] The verb is from the past participial stem surrogāt- of the same Latin verb.^[2][11][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A substitute, a representative appointed to act for another: Barnhart records surrogat in 1430 in the Proceedings of the Privy Council, and the spelling surrogate in 1465;^[8] Etymonline dates the noun to the early 15th century.^[3] The OED's first record of the noun is later, 1603, for the deputy of an ecclesiastical judge, in the Church's Constitutions and Canons.^[2]

Semantic evolution

At first the word was used chiefly of bishops and judges: the surrogate of a bishop or his chancellor granted licences to marry without banns.^[3][2][6] Johnson (1755) defined it as "a deputy; a delegate; the deputy of an ecclesiastical judge".^[12] In the former British colonies a surrogate was a substitute judge of the vice-admiralty court, (1816), and in New York and some other states of the US the title passed to a judge;^[2] Collins defines this as a judge with jurisdiction over the probate of wills.^[13] The general sense, a person or thing that takes the place of another, is recorded from 1644,^[2][3] and the adjective, serving as a substitute, from the 1630s.^[2][3] The 20th century added a partner in sex therapy (1975)^[2] and, most famously, a woman who carries a fertilized egg or embryo of another woman, first recorded in 1978, often as surrogate mother;^[2][3][8] Barnhart notes that about 1986 this was extended to a woman who bears a child by artificial insemination for a couple.^[8] In psychiatry a surrogate is a person who stands in for a parent or another figure in someone's feelings.^[13] The verb, to appoint as a substitute or to put in another's place, is recorded from 1533, in Bellenden's translation of Livy, but is now rare.^[2][8][11]

Timeline

• 1430 – surrogat, a substitute, a representative.^[8]
• 1533 – verb, to appoint as a successor or deputy.^[2][8]
• 1603 – the deputy of an ecclesiastical judge.^[2][5]
• before 1638 – adjective, taking the place of something else.^[2]
• 1644 – a person or thing that takes the place of another.^[2][3]
• 1811 – surrogacy.^[8]
• 1816 – a substitute judge in a vice-admiralty court.^[2]
• 1975 – a surrogate partner in sex therapy.^[2]
• 1978 – a woman who carries a pregnancy for another woman.^[2][3][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person or thing that acts for or takes the place of another; a substitute: The vice president acted as the senator's surrogate at the rally.^[13][5][2]
2. A surrogate mother, a woman who carries and gives birth to a baby for another person or couple.^[2][3][8]
3. (chiefly British) A deputy, especially a clergyman appointed to act for a bishop in granting marriage licences.^[13][2]
4. (psychiatry) A person who stands in for another in someone's emotional life, as a teacher may for a parent.^[13]
5. In some states of the US, a judge who deals with probate and the estates of the dead.^[13]

Adjective

1. Acting as or serving as a substitute: a surrogate family.^[13][5][2]

Verb

1. To put in the place of another; to substitute.^[5][2][12]
2. To appoint as a successor, deputy or substitute for oneself.^[5][2]

Word family

• surrogateship
• surrogation
• surrogacy
• surrogate mother

Related words

• subrogate
• interrogate
• prerogative
• rogation
• abrogate
• arrogate
• derogatory

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins