surf [E17th] Surf is probably a blend of earlier suff [L16th], of unknown origin, ‘an inrush of the sea’, and surge [LME], originally ‘fountain, stream’ but used of a high rolling swell of the sea from the mid 16th century. It comes from Latin surgere ‘to rise’, found also in resurrection [ME] ‘to rise again’ and insurrection [LME] ‘to rise up’. Surf as a verb is late 18th century in the sense of ‘to form surf’, but late 19th in the sense of ride on the crest of a wave.