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A '''surplice''' (Late Latin ''superpelliceum'', from ''super'' (over) and ''pellis'' (fur); Spanish ''sobrepellice''; French ''surplis''; German ''Chorrock'') comprises a [[liturgy|liturgical]] [[vestment]] of the Christian Church. It has the form of a tunic of white linen or cotton material, with wide or moderately wide [[sleeve]]s, reaching — according to the Roman use — barely to the hips and elsewhere in the Church of Rome to the knee. It usually features lace decoration, but in modern times — in Germany at least — it may also have embroidered bordures. The surplice descended from the Greek [[alb]], which it replaced in the North before [[Church of Rome|Rome]]'s schism from Orthodoxy. Eventually it was adopted elsewhere in the West. In recent years, the alb has been introduced in the West.
The surplice originally reached to the feet, but as early as the 13th century it began to shorten, though as late as the 15th century it still fell to the middle of the shin, and only in the 17th and 18th centuries did it become considerably shorter. In several localities it underwent more drastic modifications in the course of time, which led to the appearance of various subsidiary forms alongside the original type. For example:
