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surréel

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Etymology and origin of the French word surréel

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1924 Aragon, La Révolution surréaliste More words from the 20th century
Ultimate origin
French réel
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin rēs
French rien
Latin reālis
French réel
French surréel
Italian reale
Romanian real
From the same root
Latin quārē ← rēs
Latin rēspūblica ← rēs
Latin reus ← rēs
French réellement ← reālis
Latin reālitās ← reālis
French réaliser ← réel
French réalisme ← réel
French réaliste ← réel
Romanian realitate ← real

Forms

surréel (feminine surréelle, masculine plural surréels, feminine plural surréelles)[1]

Etymology

It is formed from French sur- + réel.[2][3][4][1] It was introduced by Aragon in 1924, together with surréaliste, surréalisme and surréalité.[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Aragon used it in 1924, as an adjective and as a noun, in the first issue of La Révolution surréaliste.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The word belonged at first to the vocabulary of the Surrealists, for what lies beyond the real.[5][4] It then qualified things or works whose strangeness seems truer than ordinary reality and suggests a mysterious world behind appearances, as Malraux used it in 1928.[2] The Petit Robert still listed it as a neologism in the early 1970s.[6] In mathematics the masculine noun names a surreal number.[1]

Timeline

  • 1924 – Aragon uses surréel in La Révolution surréaliste.[2][5]
  • 1928 – Malraux uses it of bodies seen in a strange light, in Les Conquérants.[2]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. (literary) Beyond the real; strange and dreamlike, seeming more true than ordinary reality: une lumière surréelle.[4][2]

Noun

  1. Le surréel: what lies beyond the real.[4][2]
  2. (mathematics) A surreal number.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
  3. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  5. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  6. ^ Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
Cite this entry

“Surréel.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/surr%C3%A9el. Accessed 15 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·