Surgical means to do with operations, or done with exact precision. Surgical instruments, a surgical strike, surgical precision.
A surgical strike is a military claim rather than a description, and it borrows the word's promise of exactness. The Greek behind it means handwork, since surgery was the trade done with the hands.
1adjectivesurgicalTo do with operations, or done with exact precision.
“The nurse put on surgical gloves before cleaning the wound.”
surgical is a quality.
Greek cheirourgia means handwork, from cheir, a hand, plus ergon, work.
Medieval Latin
cirurgicālis
Middle French
cirurgical
Middle English
cirurgical
English, today
surgical
Built from
From Middle English cirurgical, from Middle French cirurgical, from Medieval Latin cirurgicālis, from la-lat + chīrurgicus. From Middle English cirurgical, borrowed from Middle French cirurgical, from Medieval Latin cirurgicālis, ultimately from Ancient Greek χειρουργία, from χείρ (“hand”) + ἔργον (“work”). Replaced Old English Old English læċe (“doctor, physician”). by surface analysis, surgery + -ical.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA