somersault

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French sombresaut, also sombresault,^[2][3][4] which the OED and Ayto call Old French,^[5][6] an alteration of soubresaut, earlier sobresault.^[5][2][7][8] This comes from Old Occitan sobresaut,^{[9][4][10][11]} a form that Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Ayto mark as unrecorded.^[2][6] It is a compound of sobre (“over, above”) and saut (“a leap, a jump”).^[9][4][6] The first part goes back to Latin suprā (“above, over”),^[9][4][6][8] or, according to Merriam-Webster Unabridged, Collins and Dictionary.com, to super (“over”).^[2][12][13] The second is from saltus (“a leap”), from the root of saliō (“to leap”),^[9][4][11] which the American Heritage Dictionary refers to Proto-Indo-European *sel-.^[11] Klein allows Spanish sobresalto beside the Provençal form as the source of the French word,^[7] and Skeat derived it from Italian soprasalto.^[14] Ayto stresses that the word has nothing to do with summer.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A leap in which a person turns heels over head in the air and lands on the feet: 1530, in Palsgrave's Lesclarcissement de la langue francoyse.^[5][4] Etymonline gives the 1520s,^[9] Dictionary.com 1520–30.^[13]

Semantic evolution

English first used the word for a tumbler's or acrobat's feat; children's imitations of it were rolls along the ground, so that a somersault no longer has to involve a leap.^[3] The spelling wandered: sobersault is recorded from before 1533 to 1625,^[5] and the corruption somerset from 1591, with a verb from 1599 in Nashe.^[5][9] A figurative use appears before 1680, in S. Butler's Genuine Remains,^[5] and the word is now common for a complete reversal of opinion or policy;^[12][8] Whittier wrote of someone who "turned a moral somersault".^[8] The verb came late: 1858 in Surtees's Ask Mamma, according to the OED and Barnhart,^[5][4] and 1845 according to Etymonline.^[9] In Australian prison and underworld slang the verb has meant to reverse one's plea in court, from 1970.^[15]

Timeline

• 1530 – an acrobatic leap, heels over head.^[5][4]
• before 1533 – the variant sobersault.^[5]
• 1591 – the variant somerset.^[5][16]
• before 1680 – figurative use.^[5]
• 1858 – verb, to turn a somersault.^[5][4] Etymonline dates the verb to 1845.^[9]
• 1970 – Australian slang, to reverse one's plea in court.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. An acrobatic leap in which the body turns heels over head in the air before landing on the feet.^[5][2][12]
2. A forward or backward roll on the ground, with the head tucked and the legs brought over it: The toddler tried a somersault on the lawn.^[12][2]
3. In diving, a dive with an end-over-end rotation.^[2]
4. A complete reversal of opinion or policy.^[12][8]

Verb

1. To turn a somersault, or to turn over and over: The car somersaulted into the ditch.^[2][5][8]
2. (Australian slang) To reverse one's plea in court.^[15]

Word family

• somersaulter

Related words

• desultory
• salient
• saltatory
• somerset
• supra
• assault
• assail
• insult
• sauté
• sally

Usage notes

The spelling summersault also occurs, less commonly.^[2][12]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
12. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
14. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
15. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
16. ^ Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)