sum

Pronunciation

• IPA: /sʌm/^[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English summe, somme, borrowed from Anglo-Norman summe, summe (“amount, total; essential point”) (modern French somme),^[2][3][4] from summa (“the top; main thing, essence; total”),^[2][3][5] a noun use of the feminine of summus “highest”,^[2][3][4] earlier *supmos, from the root of super (“over”) (see over).^[3][2][6] The verb is from Old French summer, sommer, or directly from Medieval Latin summāre (“to add up”).^[2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A quantity or amount of money: about 1290 in the OED, about 1300 in Barnhart and Etymonline.^[7][3][2]

Semantic evolution

The passage from “highest” to “total” is probably due to the Roman custom of adding a column of figures upwards and writing the total at the top, which Barnhart and Etymonline compare with the modern bottom line.^[3][2] The whole, or the principal points viewed together, is from about 1300, and the essence of a writing or speech from the mid-14th century.^[2] The mathematical aggregate of numbers is from the early 15th century,^[2][4] and an arithmetical problem to be solved, as in doing sums at school, from 1803.^[2] Sum total is from the late 14th century, after Medieval Latin summa totalis.^[2] The verb, to count up, is from before 1325 in Barnhart;^[3] to state briefly the substance of something is from before 1398 in Barnhart and the 1620s in Etymonline,^[3][2] and since about 1700 is usually sum up.^[2] Word Origins links a schoolchild's sums with a judge's summing up, and notes that summary and summit come from the same Latin.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1290 – a sum of money.^[7]
• c. 1300 – the whole, the main points.^[2]
• before 1325 – the verb, to count up.^[3]
• late 14th century – sum total.^[2]
• early 15th century – the result of adding.^[2]
• 1803 – an arithmetical problem.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The number obtained by adding two or more numbers.
2. A problem in arithmetic.
3. An amount of money.
4. The whole amount; the total.
5. The essence or gist of something; a summary.

Verb

1. To add up.
2. (usually sum up) To give a short account of; to summarize.

Word family

• summability
• summable
• sumless
• sumlessness
• checksum
• zero-sum
• sum-up
• outsum

Related words

• summand
• summary
• summation
• summative
• summit
• super
• over
• supreme

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press