Etymology

surplice

sur·plice
S1U1R1P3L1I1C3E1

Today it means: A liturgical vestment of the Christian Church in the form of a tunic of white linen or cotton material, with wide or moderately wide sleeves, reaching to the hips or knees, usually featuring lace decoration and embroidered bordures. Full definition →

Middle English surplys ← Old French surpeliz ← Latin super
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Latin · derived fromsuper“over”
  2. Old French · derived fromsurpeliz
  3. Middle English · inherited fromsurplys
  4. English todaysurplice

Inherited from Middle English surplys, from Old French surpeliz, from Medieval Latin superpelliceum, from Latin super (“over”) and pellis (“fur”).

Words from the same roots

Latinsuper all →

survivesovereignsovereigntysupervisesopranosur-surtitle

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.