chirurgus
Chirurgus is Latin for a surgeon; in old records it usually means a barber surgeon who set bones and treated wounds, not a university doctor.
Chirurgus means surgeon, from Greek words for hand and work. In Europe surgery was seldom done by physicians; for centuries it was the work of barber surgeons, who learned by apprenticeship and also shaved and let blood.
So a chirurgus in a parish register was usually a craftsman healer, not a university doctor. His name may also appear in guild or town records.
As seen in a recordLatin baptism register, Austrian town, 1790s
Testis: Dominus Ignatius Bader, chirurgus oppidi
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "chirurgus." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/latin/chirurgus. Last checked 2026-10-10.