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somme

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French has three nouns spelled somme: a sum (feminine), a burden, now only in bête de somme (feminine), and a nap (masculine).[1][2][3]

somme1 sum

Pronunciation

Forms

somme f (plural sommes)[4]

Etymology

The sum is borrowed from Latin summa (“the highest place; total, amount; the whole”),[1][5][2][4][6] short for a Latin phrase meaning “the top line”, because the Romans added from the bottom up.[7] It is the noun use of the feminine of summus (“highest”), the superlative of super (“above”).[1][7] Rey treats the Old French forms sume (about 1155) and some as inherited and the spelling with ⟨mm⟩ (13th century) as a remodelling after Latin, Bloch and Wartburg think its senses point to borrowing in all the Romance languages.[7][5] The phrase for “in short” is a calque of in summā (“in all”).[1][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Philippe de Thaon's Comput (1119) has ceo est la sume, “that is the essence”.[1]

Semantic evolution

Old French ce est la some meant “this is the gist” and “in truth” (about 1175).[7] A somme was a compendium of all events (about 1245), then a work summing up a science (Boutillier's Somme rural, 1479), as Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologiae.[1][7] The sense “amount of money” is in Benoît de Sainte-Maure (about 1175), and the arithmetical total in the Vie de saint Auban (about 1245).[1] En somme (Oresme, 1370) and somme toute (1464, Pathelin), an old legal phrase, mean “in short, all in all”.[1][5]

Timeline

  • 1119 – Sume “the essence”, Philippe de Thaon.[1]
  • c. 1175 – An amount of money, Benoît de Sainte-Maure.[1]
  • c. 1245 – A total of quantities added.[1]
  • 1370 – En somme, Oresme.[1]
  • 1464 – Somme toute, Farce de Maître Pathelin.[1]
  • 1479 – A compendium, Boutillier's Somme rural.[1]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A sum, the result of an addition; a total.[1][4]
  2. An amount of money.[1][3]
  3. A whole, a quantity.[1]
  4. A treatise summing up a subject; a compendium.[1][7]
  5. En somme, somme toute: in short, all in all.[1][5]

somme2 burden

Pronunciation

Forms

somme f[4]

Etymology

The burden is inherited from Old French some, inherited from Late Latin sauma (“packsaddle”) (7th century, spelled salma in Isidore and soma in the Reichenau Glosses), a late variant of sagma, borrowed from Ancient Greek σάγμα (ságma, “packsaddle; load; heap”).[1][7][5][2][4][8] Compare Italian soma (“load”), Old Occitan sauma and Spanish salma.[5][7][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Pèlerinage de Charlemagne (about 1140) has some for the load a horse or mule can carry, Béroul (late 12th century) uses it for a beast of burden.[1][7]

Semantic evolution

The sense “load” was recorded by the Académie until 1878; the word also meant a packsaddle (about 1230), figuratively “toil, trouble” (until Ronsard), and a measure of salt or liquids (1195).[7] The only living use is bête de somme “pack animal” (Hulsius, 1596), figuratively a person worked hard (Voltaire, 1756).[1][7][3] Littré notes that the old pronunciation sôme survived in the countryside, the word having been assimilated to somme “sum”.[9]

Timeline

  • c. 1140 – Some “load”, Pèlerinage de Charlemagne.[1]
  • 1195 – A measure.[7]
  • 1596 – Beste de somme, Hulsius.[1]
  • 1756 – Bête de somme of a person, Voltaire.[1]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Bête de somme: a beast of burden, pack animal; figuratively, a drudge: travailler comme une bête de somme.[3][1]
  2. (old) A load; a packsaddle.[7][4]

somme3 nap

Pronunciation

Forms

somme m (plural sommes)[4]

Etymology

The nap is inherited from Old French somme, inherited from Latin somnus (“sleep”), remodelled after sommeil;[1][5][3][4][10] the regular outcome was som (early 13th century), rare in Old French but still common in dialects.[1][5] Compare Italian sonno, Old Occitan som and Spanish sueño.[5][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Voyage de saint Brendan (early 12th century) has li sumnes lur cureit sus, “sleep came over them”: the act of sleeping.[1]

Semantic evolution

Gautier de Coinci (about 1223) has ne fist c'un somme, “slept in one stretch”.[1] Until the 17th century it simply meant “sleep”, as it still does in most Gallo-Romance dialects; the restriction to a fairly short sleep dates from that century.[5] Piquer un somme is a familiar phrase for taking a nap.[4]

Timeline

  • Early 12th century – Sumnes, Voyage de saint Brendan.[1]
  • c. 1223 – Ne fist c'un somme, Gautier de Coinci.[1]
  • 17th century – Restricted to a short sleep.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A nap, a doze: faire un somme, un petit somme, piquer un somme.[3][4]
  2. Dormir d'un somme: to sleep right through.[1]

Usage notes

Somme is also the name of a river and a department of northern France.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
  2. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  3. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 12, 427b
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  8. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 11, 61a
  9. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  10. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 12, 92b
  11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter