# summer

Pronunciation: US say "SUM-ur" /ˈsʌmɚ/; UK say "SUM-uh" /ˈsʌmə/

## Noun

1. The warm season between spring and fall, marked by the year's longest and hottest days, falling in June through August in the north and December through February in the south.
   - Simple: The warm season between spring and fall, when days are longest and hottest.
   - _The children spent every summer at their grandmother's farm._
   - _By late summer, the fields had turned golden and dry._
3. The most flourishing, happy, or beautiful period of something; its golden age or prime.
   - Simple: The best and happiest time of something's life, like its golden days.
   - _That decade marked the summer of the empire, when its art and trade flourished._
   - _He looks back on his thirties as the summer of his life._
4. A year of a person's age, used especially for a young person and chiefly in poetic or playful speech. *(literary)*
   - Simple: A year of someone's life, used to tell a young person's age.
   - _A child of twelve summers stood waiting at the gate._
   - _She was but one summer old when her father sailed away._
5. A person with light, pinkish, blue-toned skin, light hair, and light eyes, regarded as best suited to certain cool colors of clothing.
   - Simple: A person with cool, light skin, light hair, and light eyes who looks best in soft cool colors.
   - _The consultant identified her as a summer and steered her toward lavender and rose._
   - _A summer typically avoids warm oranges in favor of cool pastels._

## Verb

2. To pass the summer in a particular place, especially while on vacation.
   - Simple: To spend the warm season somewhere, often on vacation.
   - _Many artists summer on the island to paint the coastline._
   - _She summers in a quiet village far from the city._

## Noun

6. A horse used for carrying goods or packs on its back. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: A horse used to carry heavy loads on its back.

## Other meanings

- (noun) A person, machine, or circuit that adds numbers, quantities, or signals together to produce a total.
- (noun) A horizontal beam that supports the weight of a building above it.

## Origin

**Meanings 1–5** — Old English sumor ("summer") became Middle English somer. It goes back through Proto-West Germanic *sumar and Proto-Germanic *sumaraz to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "summer, year." Dutch zomer, German Sommer and Swedish sommar are among its many relatives.
**Meaning 6** — Latin sagma gave Late Latin sagmārius, which appeared in Vulgar Latin as saumārius. From there it passed into Anglo-Norman as summer and into Middle English as somer. The word sumpter is comparable.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/summer (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).