Etymograph

English

summit

Summit comes from Middle English somet, and goes back to Old French somet.

  1. Old Frenchc. 842–1400somet
  2. Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400sumet
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500somet
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1924summit

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Old Frenchc. 842–1400somet
  2. Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400sumet
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500somet
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1924summit

Earliest quotation: 1924, Herbert Weir Smyth, VI. Orestea. I: Agamemnon: “Learning from others as from himself, he reached the…”

The story

The noun is derived from Late Middle English somet, somete (‘head, top’) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman sumet and Middle French sommet (masculine), somete, sommette (‘top of a thing; highest point of a mountain’) (feminine) (modern French sommet), from Old French somet, sommette, from som, sum (‘highest point, summit’) + -et (suffix forming diminutive masculine nouns), -ete, -ette (suffix forming diminutive feminine nouns). Som, sum are derived from Latin summum (‘top, summit’), a noun use of the neuter of summus (“greatest, highest; top, uppermost”, adjective) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *upér (‘over’) + *-m̥mos, *-tm̥mos (‘suffix forming superlative adjectives’)). The modern English spelling was influenced by summity (‘height or top of a thing; utmost degree, perfection’) (obsolete).

Every English word from Old French somet

Today it means

noun The highest point of a hill, mountain, or similar geographical feature.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Old French somet / summit

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