Etymologically
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surrogate

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈsʌɹəɡɪt/, /ˈsʌɹəɡeɪt/[1]
  • US: /ˈsɝəɡɪt/, /ˈsɝəɡeɪt/[1]

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
  • 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