sum-total
(ˌsʌmˈtəʊtəl)
Pl. sums-total, sum-totals.
[ad. med.L. summa tōtālis: see sum n.1 and total a. Cf. F. somme totale.]
The aggregate of all the items in an account; the total amount (of things capable of numeration).
| c 1395 Plowman's Tale i. 418 The hye goodes frendship hem makes, They toteth on hir somme totall. c 1430 Art of Nombryng vi. 9 Ioyne the produccioun, and þere wol be the some totalle. 1497 Naval Acc. Hen. VII (1896) 325 Somme Totell of almaner Costes Charges & Expences. Ibid. 330 Somme Totall of all Stuff Takle & Apparell ordinance Artillarie & Abillamentes of warre. 1523 Fitzherb. Surv. 30 To knowe the hole charge of all the partyculers, what they be at the first syght, in the sommes totall. 1533 More Debell. Salem Wks. 1024/1 He bringeth forth here a fewe amountyng in a some totall to the infinite number of fower. 1675 Cocker Morals 4 Compute your Sins Sum-Total for a Year. 1743 Bulkeley & Cummins Voy. S. Seas Pref. p. xx, The Sum Total we shall ever receive for our Voyage to the South-Seas. 1856 N. Brit. Rev. XXVI. 91 In the terms of peace made with France, a sum-total was agreed on for the whole debt. 1864 Intell. Observ. VI. 273 The Mint is each day engaged in adding to the sums total. 1865 Mrs. Gaskell Wives & Dau. xxii, Every time the sum-totals came to different amounts. |
b. gen. The aggregate or totality of.
| 1660 Jer. Taylor Worthy Commun. i. §2. 38 There are two great Sermons of the Gospel which are the summe total and abreviature of the whole word of God. 1729 Butler Serm. Wks. 1874 II. 145 These particular enjoyments make up the sum total of our happiness. 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. ii. iii. ii, The diseased things that were spoken, done, the sum-total whereof is the French Revolution. 1875 Punch 22 May 215/1 The session will have done something to lessen the sum-total of human suffering. 1878 N. Amer. Rev. CXXVI. 35 Throughout the world the sum-total of motion is ever the same. 1906 Anwyl Celtic Relig. i. 5 To the sum-total of these religious ideas contributions have been made from many sources. |
Hence sum-ˈtotalize v. trans. and intr., to reckon or state the sum-total, to sum up; whence ˌsum-totaliˈzation, summing up.
| 1840 Haliburton Clockm. Ser. iii. ii. 26 But to sum-totalize my story: the next time [etc.]. 1855 ― Nat. & Hum. Nat. I. 18 Maxims and saws are the sumtotalization of a thing. 1865 W. G. Palgrave Arabia I. 29 To decide on the value of each separate coin, and after that to sum-totalize. |