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summit

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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

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