prefix, a. (O)F. sur-, earlier sour-, sor-, soure- (repr. L. super), used in various senses of SUPER-, as in surcharger to burden excessively, overburden, SURCHARGE, surcot upper coat, SURCOAT, surnom additional name, SURNAME, surpasser to pass beyond, SURPASS, surseoir (:—L. supersedēre to SUPERSEDE) to suspend, delay (cf. SURCEASE), survivre to live beyond, SURVIVE. As a living suffix, sur- is or has been used in a few compounds, chiefly (a) nonce-words formed after existing words, as † surburdened [after SURCHARGED], † surgirdle [after SURCINGLE]; esp. after the legal terms SURREBUTTER, SURREJOINDER, q.v., as surrebend, surrebribe, † surrecompounded, † surrecountermand vbs., † surregaining; (b) variants of technical terms compounded with SUPER- or SUPRA-, as surci·liary = SUPERCILIARY, surocci·pital = SUPEROCCIPITAL, surre·nal = SUPRARENAL; also † Surannation = SUPERANNUATION; † Sur-azotation Chem. = superazotation in SUPER -12 a; † Surclose, ? a final close; † Sur-clouded pa. pple., shaded from above; † Surcontract, a contract following upon a previous contract; Surcurrent a. Bot., ‘the opposite of decurrent; when a leafy expansion runs up the stem’ (Treas. Bot., 1866): † Surfeoff v. [after med.L. super(af)feudare] trans., to invest (a person) with an estate which one already holds from another (cf. super(in)feudation in SUPER- 13); † Surflux, overflow, flood; Sur-invest v. trans., to provide with outer clothing; † Surmatch v. trans., to excel, surpass; † Surpay v. trans., to more than compensate for; Surpreciation, enhancement of price or value; † Surrebound v., to echo repeatedly; † Sursaturated a. Chem. = SUPERSATURATED; † Surstretching ppl. a., extending far; Surstyle v. trans., = SURNAME v.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., *Surannation, a growing old, stale or above a years date.
1803. Med. Jrnl., VIII. 534. Their different degree of virulence depends on the different degree of *sur-azotation.
1577. Harrison, England, I. iii. 3/2, in Holinshed. They were not now able to remooue the importable loade of the Normanes from our *surburdened shoulders.
1874. Dawkins, Cave Hunt., vi. 219. The *surciliary ridges are strongly marked.
1589. Puttenham, Engl. Poesie, III. xix. (Arb.), 225. The Epigrammatist will vse to conclude … his Epigram with a verse or two, spoken in such sort, as it may seeme a manner of allowance to all the premisses, and that with a joyfull approbation, which the Latines call Acclamatio, we therefore call this figure the *surcloze or consenting close.
1633. Lithgow, Trav., X. 494. This Ile of Arrane is … *sur-clouded with Goatfield Hill.
1584. Leycesters Commw. (1641), 30. Hee will alwayes yet keepe a voyd place for a new *surcontract with any other.
c. 1482. in Cal. Proc. Chanc. Q. Eliz. (1830), II. Pref. 70. Affermyng that the same Piers Bank shuld have *surfeffed the same Robert Scrop of trust in divers parcells of londes.
1660. F. Brooke, trans. Le Blanc’s Trav., 217. The *surfluxes and inundations which fertilize all Egypt.
1483. Cath. Angl., 372/1. A *Surgydylle,… succingula.
1819. W. Tennant, Papistry Storm’d (1827), 95. The plumes, that *sur-invest her skin.
1636. Montgomerie’s Cherrie & Slae, 76 (Writtoun’s ed.). Poets … Whose Muse *surmatches mine.
1848. Owen, Homol. Vertebr. Skel., 146. His recognition of the *‘suroccipital’ in both mammals.
1603. Florio, Montaigne, III. v. 529. One ill kisse doth *surpay [orig. surpaye] one good.
1884. Manch. Exam., 1 Nov., 5/2. The tendency to *surpreciation in the value of gold as compared with other commodities.
1893. H. M. Doughty, Our Wherry, 63. We … unravelled the bends and rebends and *surrebends of the Geeste.
c. 1611. Chapman, Iliad, XXI. 361. Earth resounded; and great heauen, about did *surrebound.
1849. De Quincey, Eng. Mail Coach, i. Wks. 1862, IV. 294. This whole corporation was constantly bribed, rebribed, and often *sur-rebribed.
1683. Tryon, Way to Health, 536. All their Regiments of Compounded, Recompounded, Decompounded and *Surrecompounded Medicines.
1570. Foxe, A. & M. (ed. 2), I. 121/2. Sabinus … had geuen forth his letters, rehearsing withal the generall recountermaunde…. Last of al now he sendeth downe ageyne an other *Surrecountermaund.
1611. Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., IX. x. § 28. The Castle of Dunbarre … was re-gained by the Scots: for recouery, or *sur-re-gaining whereof, the King sent Iohn Earle of Surrey.
1844. Hoblyn, Dict. Terms Med. (ed. 2), *Surrenal [misdefined].
1805. G. Adams’ Nat. & Exp. Philos. (Philad.), I. App. 532. The epithet *sur-saturated, or the preposition sub is prefixed when the base of the salt is in excess.
a. 1560. Phaër, Æneid, IX. C c iij. Their heads to heauen they lift … and hie *surstretchyng skies they check.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., X. 498. The delectable planure of Murray … may be *surstyled, a second Lombardy.
a. 1661. Fuller, Worthies, Somersetshire, III. (1662), 27. Gildas, sirnamed the Wise … was eight years junior to another Gildas called Albanius…. He was also otherwise sur-stiled, Querulus.
