† chirurgyn.

Etymology: In Middle English cirurgie , sirurgie , < Old French cirurgie, sirurgie, corresponding to Italian cirurgía , cirugía , Spanish cirugía , Portuguese cirurgía < Romanic type cirurgía , representing Latin chīrūrgia (cīr- ), < Greek χειρουργία abstract noun of office, < χειρουργός surgeon. The latter was properly an adjective (sc. ἰατρός professor of healing) ‘operating with the hand’ < χειρο- hand- + -ἐργος -working. The word being fully naturalized in Latin, ch was treated as c (see ch n. and chiro- comb. form), regularly giving cir- in Romanic and English, and in later Old French and English sir-, ser-. But the Renaissance brought back into French and English (partly also into Italian) the Latin spelling with chir-; in French, however, and formerly in English pronounced with the ‘soft’ ch.