Etymologically
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summarize

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈsʌməˌɹaɪz/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English summary + -ize.[2][3][4][5] Summary is from Latin summārium (“an epitome, abstract”), from summa (“whole, totality, gist”).[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To give a summary of a text or statement; to state something briefly: 1808, in the Morning Chronicle.[2] Etymonline dates the verb to 1837 and calls it American English,[3] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates it to 1871,[4] Dictionary.com to 1870–75[6] and the Shorter Oxford to the late 19th century.[5]

Semantic evolution

The verb has kept the sense it had from the start, to state the substance of something briefly.[2][3] An intransitive use, to give a summary, followed in 1847, in the Dublin Freeman's Journal.[2] The noun summarization is recorded from the mid-19th century, summarizer from the late 19th and summarizable from the late 20th.[5]

Timeline

  • 1808 – transitive, to give a summary of something.[2] Etymonline dates the verb to 1837,[3] Merriam-Webster Unabridged to 1871.[4]
  • 1847 – intransitive, to give a summary.[2]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To give a short account of the main points of something; to sum up or recapitulate: Can you summarize the report in two sentences?[7][4][2]
  2. To make a summary; to state something briefly.[4][2]
  3. Of a thing, to be a summary of something.[7][5]

Word family

  • summarization
  • summarizer
  • summarizable
  • unsummarized

Usage notes

The spelling summarise is chiefly British.[7][6]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  7. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins