summit

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈsʌm.ɪt/^[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English somet, somette, borrowed from Middle French somete,^[2][3][4] from Old French sommette (“summit, top”), a diminutive of som (“highest part, top of a hill”),^[2][5][3] from Latin summum, the noun use of the neuter of summus (“highest”) (see sum),^[2][5][4] related to super (“over”).^[2][5] The spelling with -it, from the 17th century, is due to the older English summity (14th to 18th century), from Late Latin summitās.^[3][5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The highest point or peak of a physical thing: before 1400 in Barnhart, about 1400 in Etymonline;^[2][5] the OED's earliest use, the top part of anything, is 1470–85.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The topmost point of a mountain or hill is from 1481.^[7] Figuratively, the highest point or degree of something abstract, as the summit of his ambition, is from 1711.^[5][7] The highest level in politics and international relations is from 1950, from Winston Churchill's metaphor of a parley at the summit;^[5][2][7] summit meeting is by 1955 and summit alone, a meeting of heads of government, by 1959.^[5][2] summiteer is from 1957.^[2] In geometry a summit is a vertex of a polyhedron (1805–17).^[7]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – the highest point, peak.^[5][2]
• 1481 – the top of a mountain.^[7]
• 1711 – the highest degree, figuratively.^[5][7]
• 1950 – the highest political level, after Churchill.^[5][2]
• 1955 – summit meeting.^[5][2]
• 1959 – a summit, a meeting.^[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The highest point or part, especially of a mountain; the top.
2. The highest possible level or degree; the peak.
3. A meeting of heads of government or other top officials.

Verb

1. To reach the summit of a mountain.

Word family

• summital
• summitless
• minisummit
• presummit
• summiteer
• summitry

Related words

• sum
• summary
• summa
• super
• supreme

Usage notes

The AHD compares summit with peak, pinnacle, acme, apex, zenith and climax, which all mean the highest point; summit denotes the highest level that can be attained.^[8]

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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin