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Surname
Definitions
- 1 The portion of a person's name that is generally hereditary or treated as an indicator of a person's family, which may be shared with other members of the family, or otherwise derived from their names in some fashion; distinguished from that person's given name(s).
"James is my first name, and Smith is my surname."
- 2 the name used to identify the members of a family (as distinguished from each member's given name) wordnet
- 3 Synonym of epithet, an additional name, particularly those derived from a birthplace, quality, or achievement. obsolete
"Barsabas (whose syrname was Iustus)."
- 4 Synonym of nickname, an additional name given to a person, place, or thing, a byname. obsolete
"I have before declared that Baal was the Sun, and Baal Peor, a sirname, from a particular place of his worship."
- 5 The cognomen of Roman names. Classical-studies
- 1 To give a surname to. transitive
- 2 To call by a surname. transitive
"“Lord,” said Sir Launcelot, “I am hight Launcelot, and am surnamed ‘He of the Lake.’”"
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English surname, a partial calque of Old French surnum, surnoun (“surname; nickname”) (whence Middle English surnoun), from Late Latin supernōmen, suprānōmen (“surname”), from super- (“over, above, beyond”) and nōmen (“name”), equivalent to sur- + name.
Inherited from Middle English surname, a partial calque of Old French surnum, surnoun (“surname; nickname”) (whence Middle English surnoun), from Late Latin supernōmen, suprānōmen (“surname”), from super- (“over, above, beyond”) and nōmen (“name”), equivalent to sur- + name.
See also for "surname"
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Unscramble this word: surname