Etymologically
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summarium

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 24 October 2026 at 18:48. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [sʊmˈmaː.ri.ũː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [sumˈmaː.ri.um][1]

Forms

summārium n (genitive summāriī or summārī); second declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin summa (“total, sum”) + -ārium,[1][2] which the OLD analyses as summus (“highest”) with the same suffix.[3] It is the source of the English word summary[4] and of Italian sommario.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Seneca is its only classical witness:[3][6] he notes that a speech of the kind now commonly called breviārium was once, “when we spoke Latin”, called summārium (Letters 39.1).[6]

Semantic evolution

In Seneca's time the word was already giving way to breviārium.[6] It kept the sense of a summary, abstract or epitome in Ecclesiastical Latin.[7]

Timeline

  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca records it as the older Latin word for a summary.[6][8]
  • c. 1500 – English borrows it as summary.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A summary, an abstract or epitome.[3][6][7]

Usage notes

Du Cange has two medieval words of this spelling: one is a form of summārius, sagmārius “pack animal”, and the other, from French sommier, a smaller beam, found in an account of 1486.[9]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  3. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  9. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre