Most people, at least in western cultures, have something in common with super heroes. No, it’s not the obvious thing you’re thinking (you immediately focused on your ability to deliver a wry quip while vanquishing a super villain, I assume). It’s all in your name.
In the English tradition — or I suppose the tradition is more pervasive than the language, although it’s certainly not universal — a person has a “given” name and a “surname” or family name. But why is a family name called a “surname”? The “name” part is obvious, of course, so where does “sur” come from?
It turns out that “sur” comes from French, and before that it came from Latin, where it was (wait for it…) “super”! Thus “surname” is a “higher” name, as it includes your whole family as well as just you.
There are other “sur” words in English, and once you know the origin of “sur” they start to make sense. “Surcharge” is an additional charge — over and above the ordinary charge. It’s from French too, since about the 1400s. To “survive” is to live longer, or beyond what might have been expected for some reason. This one is quite old, and comes from Anglo-Norman. “Surpass” is to go beyond in some area, and came from the French “surpasser” around the end of the 1500s.
A couple less common “sur” words include “surbase” — in construction, a surbase is a decorative molding attached above a base, such as the crowning molding on a pedestal. And a “surcingle” is a sort of a belt that’s attached on the outside of a cassock, or around belly of a horse on the outside of a horseblanket.
So there you have it, you had something in common with superheroes as soon as you were born! So, just like a superhero, never surcease to pursue your goal!
