sb. 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. W. 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 & Past., 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 of Dartmouth College, 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. Ibid. (1630), Muses Elizium (1892), 13. Ore each Hillock it will vault, And nimbly doe the Summer-sault.
1678. Butler, Hud., III. iii. 699/235.
| 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 Somersault v. intr., to make or turn a somersault; to turn over and over. Somersaulter, one who performs a somersault.
1847. Manchester Guardian., 19 May, 5/3. At last we have the whole band leaping, spinning round, and somersaulting at the same time.
1850. Tait’s Mag., XVII. 378/1. Sometimes … the summersaulter … alights on the wrong element.
1858. R. S. Surtees, Ask Mamma, lii. 235. A pair of white breeches are summersaulting 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.
