Sommer

Forms

Sommer m (genitive Sommers, plural Sommer)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German sumer, inherited from Old High German sumar, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *sumar, inherited from Proto-Germanic *sumaraz (“summer”).^[2][1][3] The same word is Old Saxon sumar, Old Norse sumar, Old English sumor (now English summer), Old Frisian sumur and Dutch zomer.^[2][4][5] It is unrecorded only in Gothic, where Wulfila rendered Ancient Greek θέρος (théros, “summer”) by Gothic 𐌰𐍃𐌰𐌽𐍃 (asans, “harvest”).^[6]

Pfeifer and Duden trace it to Proto-Indo-European *sem- (“summer”), also found in Sanskrit समा (sámā, “half-year, season”), Avestan ham- (“summer”) and Old Irish sam (“summer”).^[4][7] Kluge points out that only Old Armenian ամառն (amaṙn, “summer”), beside ամ (am, “year”), has the same suffix as the Germanic word.^[2] Kroonen relates it to the old word for “half”, sām- and Latin sēmi-, and reconstructs *smH-oro-.^[5]

The regular modern form would keep /u/, as most southern dialects do (Alemannic German Summer, Bavarian Summer, Luxembourgish Summer); the vowel ⟨o⟩ before the nasal is of Central and Low German origin.^[1][3] The EWA finds it from the 15th century in Middle Franconian and credits Luther's Bible with spreading it over the whole language area;^[3][4] Pfeifer dates the change to about the 16th century, as in Sonne.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German sumar is recorded from the third quarter of the 8th century in glosses, then in the Benedictine Rule, the Hildebrandslied, the Tatian and Notker, meaning “summer”; the genitive (des) sumares meant “in summer”.^[3][8][9] In Middle High German sumer was also the name of a fever.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The oldest Germans knew only two seasons, and Sommer was the warm half of the year in contrast to winter, as in the pair Sommer und Winter “all year round”;^[10][11] Walther von der Vogelweide already uses it so.^[10][11] Once spring and autumn were distinguished, it was narrowed to the season between them.^[11] In poetry it can stand for a year of life (Hagedorn: sechzehn Sommer alt).^[10][11]

The white threads of small spiders drifting in late summer have been called fliegender Sommer since the 17th century, later Altweibersommer, which also names a spell of fine autumn weather.^[4] The compound Sommersprosse “freckle” clarifies an older sprusse;^[4][7] Pfeifer dates it to the end of the 17th century, Duden to the 16th.^[4][7] Sommerfrische “summer holiday in the country” arose about 1600 around Bolzano and spread at the end of the 19th century, when Sommerfrischler (1869) appeared.^[10]

Timeline

• Third quarter of the 8th century – Old High German sumar in glosses.^[3][9]
• About 900 – the adjective sumarlīh, modern sommerlich.^[4]
• 15th century – the form sommer appears in Middle Franconian.^[3]
• 16th century – Luther's Bible spreads the form with ⟨o⟩.^[3][4]
• About 1600 – Sommerfrische is used in the region of Bolzano.^[10]
• 17th century – fliegender Sommer for drifting spider threads.^[4]
• 1869 – Sommerfrischler is recorded.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. Summer, the warmest season, between spring and autumn: Letzten Sommer waren wir an der Ostsee.^[12][1]
2. (poetic) The height or prime of something: im Sommer des Lebens.^[12]
3. (poetic, dated) A year, of someone's age.^[10][11]

Word family

• sommerlich
• sommers
• Sommersprosse
• Sommerfrische
• Altweibersommer
• Nachsommer
• Hochsommer
• Spätsommer
• Sommerzeit

Related words

• English summer

Usage notes

The Grimms' dictionary lists two minor words of the same spelling: Sommer, a measure for grain and other goods, from Middle High German sumber “basket”,^[13] and sommer, a contraction of so mir in oaths such as sommer Gott.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 857
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 8, 1373
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
5. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
6. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 16, 1509
7. ^ a b c Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 791
8. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 320
9. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
10. ^ a b c d e f g Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
11. ^ a b c d e Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf, p. 4, 136
12. ^ a b Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
13. ^ a b Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 16, 1508