summe

Forms

summē ^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin summus (“highest”) + -ē.^[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Plautus.^[3] Lewis & Short's citations begin with Cicero, of what usually troubles him most in the De oratore and of wanting something greatly in the speech for Quinctius.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It means in the highest degree or extremely, with verbs (Cicero, Caesar, Quintilian) and adjectives, as in Cicero's summē iūcundum and Horace's summē mūnītus locus, a place fortified to the utmost.^[2][4] Pliny the Younger even pairs it with a superlative.^[4] Fronto uses it of doing something superlatively well.^[2] Stelten gives “highly, in the highest degree, extremely, very” for Church Latin.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus.^[3]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero, with verbs and adjectives.^[4][3]
• 65–8 BC – Horace, of a strongly fortified place.^[4][3]
• 100–170 AD – Fronto, “superlatively well”.^[2][3]

Meanings

Adverb

1. In the highest degree, extremely, intensely.^[2][4][1]
2. Superlatively well, consummately.^[2]

Related words

• summus
• superus

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson