Other forms: underwent, undergoing, undergone, undergoes
To undergo is to go through something difficult or unpleasant. Undergo surgery, undergo training, undergo a change.
The subject is passive: you undergo what is done to you, which is why patients undergo operations and surgeons perform them. The past is underwent, and the participle is undergone, which people get wrong constantly.
1verbundergoTo go through something difficult or unpleasant.
“New pilots must undergo months of tough training before they are allowed to fly alone.”
undergo is an enduring.
Old English undergan, under plus go. The sense of enduring came from going under something.
Old English
undergān — to undergo, undermine, ruin
Middle English
undergon
English, today
undergo
From Middle English undergon, from Old English undergān (“to undergo, undermine, ruin”), equivalent to under- + go. Cognate with Dutch ondergaan (“to undergo, perish, sink”), German untergehen (“to perish, sink, undergo”), Swedish undergå (“to undergo, go through”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA