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Am I right in assuming that the term 'surrogate' is meant to be used in a way of telling that someone or something is a desired replacement for a certain thing, whereas 'substitutional' would rather be used when one is trying to express that there is a replacement for something, but this replacement is kinda involuntary?

If not, where lies the difference between those terms and when should I use one in favor of the other?

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    If anything, it's not about whether it's voluntary or involuntary. Surrogate has a much more profound meaning than plain, dry, mechanical substitution -- Furthermore, surrogate is typically used of living things for biological (and sometimes administrative) functions. Usage!
    – Kris
    Commented Feb 16, 2015 at 7:50
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    The nouns substitute and surrogate are highly interchangeable in reference to people, but surrogate is rarely used in reference to non-personal substitutions. Surrogate overtook substitute in reference to mothers and fathers in the 1970's, which may increase its strength of "personal" connotation.
    – ScotM
    Commented Feb 17, 2015 at 9:02

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I agree with Kris and ScotM, but here are some additional observations. "Substitutional" is rather awkward and unusual, especially as both surrogate and substitute can be used as adjectives (surrogate parent, substitute teacher). Both can also be used as nouns. (Often words derived from Latin past participles, as both of these are, can be used as adjectives or nouns). But only substitute can be used as a verb. (Substitute, the verb, can be used transitively, as in "substitute the 2nd person plural for the first person singular in this sentence" OR intransitively, as in "I'm substituting for Amir when he has to miss class."). Etymologically, a substitute is "set up or established under" whereas the surrogate is the one "asked (to fulfil a function) over" -- if any difference in connotation arises from etymology, then, the surrogate would more likely be temporary and/or for a specific function only, while a substitute could be either temporary ("substitute teacher") or permanent ("we'll substitute a red widget when the black widget you ordered is sold out") and may remain in place for all possible functions. There might also be a connotation that a surrogate functions with the agreement or at the call of the person substituted, whereas a substitute need not have this connotation. (This latter hypothesis may explain why the questioner had an intuition that the surrogate was somehow more "voluntary.") "Replace" (verb) or "replacement" (noun or adjective) might span the meanings of both substitute and surrogate for some purposes.

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Surrogate implies loss of original quality:

"Since the British valve for this radio is no longer manufactured, a still-manufactured near-equivalent Chinese one can be used as a surrogate"

(ie, a stand-in; non-original replacement; will survive questioning [above+question])

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  • Hello, Michael. You need to provide a dictionary definition at least hinting at the pejorative nature of the switch. I haven't found one.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Jun 16, 2018 at 19:17

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