summit

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See also: Summit

English

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WOTD – 31 July 2024

Etymology 1

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PIE word
*upó

The noun is derived from Late Middle English somet, somete (“head, top”) [and other forms],[1] 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)[2] (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *upó (“below, under”) + *-m̥mós, *-tm̥mós (“suffix forming superlative adjectives”)). The modern English spelling was influenced by summity (“height or top of a thing; utmost degree, perfection”) (obsolete).[3]

The verb is derived from the noun.[4]

Pronunciation

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Noun

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summit (plural summits)

  1. The topmost point or surface of a thing; the apex, the peak.
    Synonyms: acme, (obsolete) summity, zenith; see also Thesaurus:summit
    2. The highest point of a hill, mountain, or similar geographical feature.
      In summer, it is possible to hike to the summit of Mount Shasta.
      • 2021 September 17, “The Summit”, in Eternal Blue, performed by Spiritbox, Portland, Or.: Rise Records, →OCLC:
        How can I crawl up to reach those heights / And run? / The venom is what keeps me alive / The venom is what keeps me alive / Up to the summit at night / Desperate to find that beating heart of mine that always makes me run
    3. (mathematics) A vertex of a polygon or polyhedron.
    4. (nautical, rail transport, road transport) The highest point of a canal, railway, road, etc.
    5. (obsolete)
      1. (botany) Synonym of anther (“the pollen-bearing part of the stamen of a flower”); also (rare), synonym of stigma (“the sticky part of a flower that receives pollen during pollination”)
      2. (crystallography, rare) One of the two vertices of a crystal with a rhombohedral shape where the angles of each face are equal; also, the highest point of a crystal with a pyramidal or tetrahedral shape.
  2. (figurative)
    1. The highest point of achievement, development, etc., that can be reached; the acme, the pinnacle.
    2. (politics)
      1. (archaic) The highest level of political leadership.
      3. (by extension) An assembly or gathering of the leaders of countries to discuss issues of international significance; also (loosely), an important or high-level gathering or meeting.
        They met for an international summit on environmental issues.
Usage notes
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Colloquially, sense 1.1 is used for only the highest point of a mountain, whereas in mountaineering any point that is higher than surrounding points is a summit, such as the South Summit of Mount Everest. These are distinguished by topographic prominence as subsummits (low prominence) or independent summits (high prominence).

Derived terms
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Translations
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topmost point or surface of a thing — see apex,‎ peak
vertex of a polygon or polyhedron — see vertex
highest point of achievement, development, etc., that can be reached — see acme,‎ pinnacle

Verb

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summit (third-person singular simple present summits, present participle summiting or summitting, simple past and past participle summited or summitted)

  1. (transitive, climbing, informal) To reach the summit (noun sense 1.1) of (a mountain).
  2. (intransitive, climbing, informal) To reach the summit of a mountain.
  3. (intransitive, politics) To attend a summit (noun sense 2.2.2).
    • 1969, Economic and Political Weekly, volume 4, issues 14-26, page 645:
      If the Soviet leaders could go on summiting with the US while bombs poured on North Vietnam and yet claim that they had nothing but the best interests of the Vietnamese revolution in mind, there seems precious little reason to cry wolf at Peking-Bonn relations.
    • 1972, Newsweek, volume 79, page 51:
      […] what the North Vietnamese would do while Richard Nixon was summiting in Moscow. […]
    • 1998, David S. Nuttall, Mickey Mantle's Greatest Hits, page 152:
      The young President [JFK], who is on the eve of summiting with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, is ensconced at Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, preparing to fly to Vienna with his wife, Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy, to meet with Khrushchev to discuss Cold War issues.
    • 2001, Robert V. Heffernan, Cabinetmakers: Story of the Three-year Battle to Establish the U.S. Department of Education, page 439:
      The President had been summiting with Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev in Vienna.
    • 2021, Mark LaVoie, Reagan’s Soviet Rhetoric: Telling the Soviet Redemption Story, page 92:
      From May 29 to June 3, 1988[,] Reagan and Gorbachev summited in Moscow. Expectations of the meeting were low, because Reagan's position as a "lame duck" president guaranteed that nothing new of historic import would occur.
Translations
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Etymology 2

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A variant of summat.

Pronunciation

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Pronoun

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summit

  1. (England, especially Lancashire, Yorkshire, informal) Alternative spelling of summat (“something”)
    I need to get summit to eat.

References

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  1. ^ “somet, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  2. ^ “summit, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  3. ^ “summit, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, September 2023.
  4. ^ “summit, v.2”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, July 2023; “summit, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

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Anagrams

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Italian

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Etymology

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Unadapted borrowing from English summit.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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summit m (invariable)

  1. summit (gathering of leaders)
    Synonyms: vertice, conferenza

References

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  1. ^ summit in Luciano Canepari, Dizionario di Pronuncia Italiana (DiPI)

Romanian

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Etymology

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Unadapted borrowing from English summit.

Noun

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summit n (plural summituri)

  1. summit

Declension

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Declension of summit
singular plural
indefinite articulation definite articulation indefinite articulation definite articulation
nominative/accusative (un) summit summitul (niște) summituri summiturile
genitive/dative (unui) summit summitului (unor) summituri summiturilor
vocative summitule summiturilor

Swedish

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Verb

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summit

  1. supine of simma (strong inflection)

Anagrams

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Tatar

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Etymology

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Borrowed from English summit.

Noun

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summit

  1. summit
    İnvestitsiä Summitı
    Investment summit

References

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