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[15] Although surround means ‘exist round’ something, it has no etymological connection with round. It comes via Old French suronder from late Latin superundāre ‘overflow’. This was a compound verb formed from the prefix super- ‘over’ and undāre ‘rise in waves’, a derivative of unda ‘wave’ (source of English undulate). English took the word over in its original sense, and this survived into the 17th century (an Act of Parliament of 1609 noted that ‘the sea hath broken in … and hath decayed, surrounded, and drowned up much hard ground’). The modern sense ‘exist round, encircle’ arose in the early 17th century, presumably by association with round.
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