somersault

• somerset, summersault (archaic)

From French sombresault (now obsolete, compare French sursaut, soubresaut), from Old Occitan sobresalt, from sobre- (“over, above”) + salt (“jump”), from Latin suprā (“over”) + saltus (“jump”). Doublet of soubresaut.

Cognate with Spanish sobresaltar (“to spook, startle”) and Portuguese sobressaltar (“to spook, scare, jump over”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈsʌməˌsɒlt/, /ˈsʌməˌsɔːlt/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (Northern England) IPA^(key): /ˈsʊməˌsɒlt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈsʌmɚˌsɔlt/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /ˈsʌmɚˌsɑlt/

somersault (plural somersaults)

1. Starting on one's feet, an instance of rotating one's body 360 degrees while airborne or on the ground, with one's feet passing over one's head.

   Synonyms: salto, summy (colloquial)

somersault (third-person singular simple present somersaults, present participle somersaulting, simple past and past participle somersaulted)

1. To perform a somersault.

   The performer somersaulted all the way across the stage.

   • 1992, Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash, page 361:

     He half-carries, half-drags it back to the stern, making sure the heat exchanger stays in the water, and somersaults it into the zodiac.

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