sommet

Forms

sommet m (plural sommets)^[1] Old French (Anglo-Norman) sumet, somet (about 1150); sommet is a remaking of the 14th century.^[2][3] Anglo-Norman also had summet, soumet and the feminine somette.^[4]

Etymology

It is a diminutive from Old French som (“top, highest point”), from Latin summum (“the top, the highest point”).^[3][2][5][1] The Latin noun is the neuter of the adjective summus (“highest”) used as a noun,^[2][5][6] and Littré explains the adjective as *sup-mus, the superlative of super (“above”).^[7] The Old French noun is found about 1131–1135, in the Couronnement de Louis.^[3][2]

It corresponds to Old Occitan som;^[2] Bloch and Wartburg compare Italian sommo and archaic Spanish somo.^[5] It survives in mountain names of the Dauphiné, the Grand Som and the Petit Som.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

As sumet it first appears in Benedeit's Voyage de saint Brendan (early 12th century), for the highest point of something upright;^[3][8][2] sumet d'un munt, the top of a mountain, is found about 1170.^[3][8][2]

Semantic evolution

From the first the word named the top of a mountain, as well as the top of a house, of the head (about 1150), of a mast or a lance.^[2] In 1357 Guillaume de Machaut took up the figurative sense of the Latin, sommet d'honneur, the highest degree of something.^[3][2] Classical poetry called Parnassus le double sommet (1691).^[2]

It became a term of geometry in the 17th century: sommet of a pyramid (1680) and of a curve (1691), later of an angle (1762) and of a polyhedron (1876).^[3][2] Botany used it for the tip of an organ in the 18th century,^[2] and medicine spoke of présentation du sommet, the birth of a child head first, in 1833.^[3] Au sommet “at the highest level of leadership” is from 1925, and conférence au sommet (1958) is a calque of English summit conference, the English word summit being itself borrowed from French in the 15th century;^[3][2] un sommet alone names such a meeting from 1964.^[3][2]

Timeline

• early 12th century – Sumet appears in Benedeit's Voyage de saint Brendan.^[3]
• c. 1135 – Old French som “top” appears in the Couronnement de Louis.^[3]
• c. 1170 – Sumet d'un munt, the top of a mountain.^[3]
• 1357 – Guillaume de Machaut writes sommet d'honneur.^[3][2]
• 1680 – Richelet records sommet de la piramide.^[3]
• 1691 – Ozanam speaks of the sommet of a curve.^[3][9]
• 1833 – Medicine uses présentation du sommet.^[3]
• 1958 – Mauriac writes conférence au sommet.^[3]
• 1964 – Sommet alone names a summit meeting.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The highest point of something upright: le sommet d'un clocher.^[10][11]
2. The summit or peak of a mountain, in the plural the high mountains.^[10][12]
3. (figurative) The highest degree of something: le sommet de sa carrière.^[12][11]
4. (geometry) A vertex of an angle, polygon or curve;^[10][1] (graph theory) a vertex or node.^[10][1]
5. Sommet de la tête: the crown of the head.^[10]
6. A meeting of heads of state or government, a summit: un sommet européen.^[12][2]

Related words

• sommité
• somme¹
• summum
• Latin summus
• English summit

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r 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
4. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
5. ^ a b c 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, 429a
7. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
10. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ a b Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
12. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)