surf

English

Etymology

1680s, perhaps from earlier suffe (c. 1590), possibly related to sough, or possibly of Indo-Aryan origin, as the word was formerly a reference to the coast of India. The verb is from 1917.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /sɜːf/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /sɝf/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)f
• Homophone: serf (in accents with the fern-fir-fur merger)

Noun

surf (countable and uncountable, plural surfs)

1. Waves that break on an ocean shoreline.
   • 1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London, Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC:

     […] perhaps it was the look of the island, with its gray, melancholy woods, and wild stone spires, and the surf that we could both see and hear foaming and thundering on the steep beach […]

   • 1898, J. Meade Falkner, chapter 5, in Moonfleet, London, Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934:

     'But when the surf fell enough for the boats to get ashore, and Greening held a lantern for me to jump down into the passage, after we had got the side out of the tomb, the first thing the light fell on at the bottom was a white face turned skyward.

   • 1900, Joseph Grinnell, Birds of the Kotzebue Sound Region, Alaska‎^[1], page 12:

     It was alone, nervously alighting and flying short distances along the surf.

   • 1941, Raymond Russell Camp, Fishing the Surf‎^[2], page 248:

     In most instances the inshore holes or pockets along the surf do not produce as well as the cuts or sloughs between sand bars.

   • 1963, Vlad Evanoff, Spin Fishing‎^[3], page 181:

     Snook are found in rivers, canals, inlets and along the surf, especially around sand bars, tidal rips, jetties, bridges and piers.

2. An instance or session of riding a surfboard in the surf.

   We went for a surf this morning.

3. A dance popular in the 1960s in which the movements of a surfboard rider are mimicked.
   • 1964 July 15, The Australian, Sydney, page 20, column 3:

     She [...] loves to cook, sew and dance. She's up on all the latest steps like the frug, the hully-gully and the surf.

4. (UK, dialect) The bottom of a drain.

Derived terms

• counter surf
• surfboard, surfboarder
• surf boat
• surf carnival
• Surf City
• surf clam
• Surf Coast
• surf duck
• surf kayaking
• surf lifesaving
• surf line
• surf mat
• surf punk
• surf rider
• surf riding
• surf rock
• surf satin
• surf scoter
• surf ski
• surf torture

 

Translations

waves that break

• Bulgarian: прибой (bg) m (priboj)
• Cornish: mordardh m
• Dutch: branding (nl)
• Esperanto: surfo
• Faroese: brim n
• Finnish: surffi
• French: brisants (fr) m pl
• Galician: rompente (gl) f
• German: Brandung (de) f
• Greek:

  Ancient: ῥόθιον n (rhóthion), (Epic) ῥηγμῑ́ν f (rhēgmī́n)

• Hungarian: taraj (hu), hullám (hu),
• Icelandic: brim (is) n
• Irish: bruth m
• Italian: frangenti (it) m pl, flutti (it) m pl
• Maori: auheke, karekare, pōhutu, tai whati
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: brenning m

• Polish: przybój (pl) m
• Portuguese: rebentação f
• Russian: прибо́й (ru) m (pribój)
• Spanish: marea (es) f, oleaje (es) m
• Vietnamese: cuộc lướt sóng
• Welsh: ewyn y don m, brig y don m, ewyn môr

Verb

surf (third-person singular simple present surfs, present participle surfing, simple past and past participle surfed)

1. To ride a wave on a surfboard; to pursue or take part in the sport of surfing.
2. To surf at a specified place.
3. To bodysurf; to swim in the surf at a beach.
   • 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 90:

     Such diversion as Podson could extort from his isolation was soon vitiated by repetition. He surfed. He sun-baked - with discretion till his skin had peeled and given him a harder cuticle.

4. (transitive, intransitive) To browse the Internet, television, etc.

Derived terms

• bed surf
• (browse the Internet): channel-surf, counter surf, cybersurf, netsurf, silver surfer, shoulder surf
• couch surf
• (ride a wave): surfer, surfing, surfboard; crowdsurf, train-surf, bodysurf, countersurf, parasurf, shoulder surf
• side surf
• sofa surf
• surf and turf
• surf cast
• surfer (noun)

 

Translations

to ride a wave

• Bulgarian: ловя вълни (lovja vǎlni)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 衝浪／冲浪 (zh) (chōnglàng)

• Cornish: mordardha
• Dutch: surfen (nl)
• Esperanto: ondorajdi, surfi
• Finnish: lainelautailla
• French: surfer (fr)
• German: wellenreiten, surfen (de)
• Hawaiian: e heʻe nalu
• Hebrew: גלש (he)
• Hungarian: hullámlovagol (hu), szörfözik (hu)
• Italian: surfare, fare surf
• Japanese: サーフインをする (sāfin-o suru)
• Maori: whakahekeheke, whakahekeheke ngaru, whakahekeheke, eke ngaru, whakaheke ngaru, whakaretireti, auheke
• Norman: seurfer
• Portuguese: surfar (pt)
• Russian: занима́ться сёрфингом (zanimátʹsja sjórfingom)
• Samoan: e fa'ase'e i le galu
• Spanish: surfear
• Swedish: surfa (sv)
• Tongan: fānifo
• Turkish: sörf yapmak (tr)
• Vietnamese: lướt sóng
• Welsh: beistonna, syrffio

to browse the Internet

• Bulgarian: сърфирам (sǎrfiram)
• Catalan: navegar (ca)
• Cornish: rosya
• Dutch: surfen (nl)
• Esperanto: retumi (eo)
• Finnish: surffata (fi)
• French: surfer (fr)
• German: surfen (de)
• Hebrew: גלש (he)
• Hungarian: szörfözik (hu), szörföl (hu) (slang)
• Italian: navigare (it)
• Navajo: bitaaʼ dilkʼąąs
• Norman: seurfer
• Polish: surfować (pl)
• Portuguese: navegar (pt)
• Russian: сёрфить (ru) (sjórfitʹ)
• Spanish: navegar (es)
• Swahili: peruzi
• Swedish: surfa (sv)
• Vietnamese: lướt web, lướt mạng
• Welsh: syrffio

Anagrams

• Furs, furs

French

Noun

surf m (uncountable)

1. surfing

Derived terms

• surf des neiges

Related terms

• surfer
• surfeur
• surfeuse

Further reading

• “surf”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Italian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English surf.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɛrf/, /ˈsørf/
• Rhymes: -ɛrf

Noun

surf m (invariable)

1. (sports) surfing

Derived terms

• surfista
• surfare
• tavola da surf
• windsurf

Portuguese

Alternative forms

• surfe (Brazil)

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English surf.

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈsɐʁ.fi/ [ˈsɐh.fi]

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈsɐʁ.fi/ [ˈsɐh.fi]
  • (São Paulo) IPA^(key): /ˈsɐɾ.fi/
  • (Rio de Janeiro) IPA^(key): /ˈsɐʁ.fi/ [ˈsɐχ.fi]
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈsɐɻ.fe/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈsɐɾ.fɨ/

Noun

surf m (uncountable)

1. (sports) surfing

Romanian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English surf.

Noun

surf n (uncountable)

1. surf

Declension

declension of surf (singular only)

	singular
n gender	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(un) surf	surful
genitive/dative	(unui) surf	surfului
vocative	surfule

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from English surf.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsuɾf/ [ˈsuɾf]
  • Rhymes: -uɾf
  • Syllabification: surf
• IPA^(key): /ˈsoɾf/ [ˈsoɾf]
  • Rhymes: -oɾf

Noun

surf m (uncountable)

1. surfing

Derived terms

• surfear
• surfista
• tabla de surf

 

Further reading

• “surf”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014