Surveyor

How to spell surveyor

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce surveyor

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does surveyor mean?

1. nounA person whose job is to measure and record the details, boundaries, or condition of land or buildings.

Surveyor in a sentence

• The surveyor measured the plot before the fence was built.

• Before buying the house, they hired a surveyor to check for structural problems.

Where does surveyor come from?

Language of origin: French

This word reaches English from Old French surveeir, which combined sur-, meaning 'over' or 'above', with veeir, meaning 'to see' or 'to look', the latter descending from the Latin verb videre, 'to see'. The literal sense was therefore 'one who looks over' something, an apt image for an official who inspects or oversees. English took up the verb 'survey' in the fifteenth century with the meaning of examining or supervising, and the agent noun 'surveyor' followed for the person who carried out that overseeing. Over time the word narrowed toward its common modern use for the professional who measures and maps land, boundaries, and buildings. The same videre root shows up in a crowd of familiar relatives such as 'vision', 'video', and 'evident', and the buried 'vey' (rather than 'vay' or 'vei') is the spot where the spelling most often trips writers up.

How the word is built

• sur- (over)
• -vey- (from Old French veeir/Latin videre: to see)
• -or (agent-noun suffix: one who does)