somersault, n.
(ˈsʌməsɒlt, -ɔː-)
Forms: α. 6– somersault (7 sommer-), 6–7 -saut, 7 -salt. β. 7–9 summersault, 7 -saut, -salt. γ. 7 sombersalt, simber salt.
[ad. OF. sombresaut, -sault, alteration of sobresault: see sobersault.]
A leap or spring in which a person turns heels over head in the air and alights on his feet; esp. such a feat as performed by acrobats or tumblers; a pitchpoll. Hence, a turning over in this fashion; a complete overturn, upset, etc.
| α 1530 Palsgr. 272/2 Somersault, a lepe of a tombler, sobersault. 1591 Harington Orl. Fur. xxxv. lxviii, With her goldelaunce, She made him the backe somersaut to daunce. [marg.] Somersaut is a leape that the tomblers vse to cast them selues forward their heeles ouer their head. 1613 Browne Brit. Past. i. iii, As when some boy, trying the Somersaut, Stands on his head and feet. 1675 Cotton Burlesque upon B. 99 And make thee from the Christal Vault Take such a dainty Somer-sault. 1801 Strutt Sports & P. iii. v. 207 Turning with the heels over the head in the air, which is called the Somersault. 1860 All Year Round No. 70. 480 It took off its hat and turned a somersault at Lambert's feet. 1878 M. Foster Physiol. iii. vi. ii. 499 In yet another form the animal..tumbles head over heels in a series of somersaults. |
| fig. a 1680 Butler Rem. (1759) II. 200 He gives his Opinion the Somer-Salt, and turns the wrong Side of it outwards. 1874 Whittier Anti-Slavery Convention Prose Wks. 1889 III. 179 Dr. Lord.., then professedly in favor of emancipation, but who afterwards turned a moral somersault. |
| β 1611 Cotgr., Soubresault, a Sobresault, or Summer sault. 1612 Drayton Poly-olb. vi. 52 So doth the salmon vaut, And if at first he faile, his second Summersaut He instantlie assaies. 1630 ― Muses Elizium (1892) 13 Ore each Hillock it will vault, And nimbly doe the Summer-sault. 1678 Butler Hud. iii. iii. 699 For which, some do the Summer-sault And ore the Bar, like Tumblers, vault. 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Summer-Sault, a Gambol or Feat of Activity shew'd by a Tumbler. 1865 Dickens Mut. Fr. i. vii, A Hindoo baby..curved up with his big head tucked under him, as though he would instantly throw a summersault. |
| fig. 1847 Emerson Repr. Men i. Uses of Gt. Men Wks. (Bohn) I. 280 Foremost among these activities are the summersaults, spells, and resurrections, wrought by the imagination. |
| γ 1612 Donne Progr. Soul xlvii. (1633) 24 That could make love faces, or could doe The valters sombersalts. 1653 Walton Compl. Angler 152 About which time of breeding the He and She frog are observed to use divers simber salts. |
Hence
ˈsomersault v. intr., to make or turn a somersault; to turn over and over.
ˈsomersaulter, one who performs a somersault.
| 1850 Tait's Mag. XVII. 378/1 Sometimes..the summer⁓saulter..alights on the wrong element. 1858 R. S. Surtees Ask Mamma lii. 235 A pair of white breeches are summer⁓saulting in the air. 1887 Jefferies Amaryllis xiv, Nothing for the folk but Punch, brass bands, and somersaulters. 1887 W. Rye Norfolk Broads 69 A most hearty..kick under the jaw, which sent him [a dog] somersaulting into a rose-bush. |