Also 4 sumer, 4–5 swmmer, somere, 4–8 somer, (6 somor), 5 sommere, 6–9 sommer; Sc. 6–7 (9) symmer, 9 simmer, (shimmer). See also SOMMIER2. [a. AF. sumer, somer, = OF. somier (mod.F. sommier) pack-horse, beam = Pr. saumier, It. somaro, somiere:—pop.L. saumāriu-s, for sagmārius, f. sagma (see SUM sb.2). For the sense-development cf. horse and F. cheval.
The OF. word was adopted in MLG. somer long thin pole or tree.]
I. † 1. A pack-horse. (Cf. SOMER 1, SOUMER.)
1375. Barbour, Bruce, XIX. 746. [They] tynt bot litill of thar ger, Bot gif it war ony swmmer [v.r. summer] That in the moss wes left liand.
14[?]. Guy Warw. (ed. Copland ? 1560), Cc j b. His neck is great as any sommere; he renneth as swifte as any Distrere [MS. Auch. l. 7163 As a somer it is brested bifore in þe brede & swifter ernend þan ani stede].
c. 1470. Love’s Bonavent. Mirr., xiv. (Sherard MS.). Ȝoure … knyghtes,… horses and herneyes, charyotes and summeres.
II. 2. † a. gen. A main beam in a structure. Sc. (in genuine use). Obs.
1324. Acc. Exch. K. R., Bd. 165. No. 1. m. 4 (P.R.O.). Pro iiijxx xvij. somers pro springaldis … xij li. xviij. s. viij. d.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, XVII. 696. The stane … hyt the sow in sic maner, That it that wes the mast summer … In-swndir with that dusche he brak.
1533. in Pitcairn, Crim. Trials (1833), I. *163. [Breaking their] dooks, [and Fishing in the water of Dee,… and destruction of the] symmeris [and] hekkis [thereof].
1654. Earl Monm., trans. Bentivoglio’s Wars Flanders, 219. That they might place their Summers in the parts nearest the banks … and in the middle where it was deepest their boats.
1658. trans. Porta’s Nat. Magick, IV. i. 113. Binde [the vines] … fast to the summers or beams with the sprigs of Broom.
1595. Leoni, Palladio’s Archit. (1742), I. 85. These summers were join’d with other summers across them.
b. A horizontal bearing beam in a building: spec. the main beam supporting the girders or joists of a floor (or occas. the rafters of a roof). (When on the face of a building it is properly called BREAST-SUMMER.)
1359–60. Sacrist Rolls Ely (1907), II. 193. In xij lapidibus pro pendauntz postes portandis iij someres et xx linteles.
1448. in Willis & Clark, Cambridge (1886), II. 8. The Someres of the seid hows shall be one side xij inch squar and on the other part xiiij inch squar.
1532. in Bayley, Tower Lond. (1821), App. 1. p. xviii. A roffe of tymber, and a bourde made complete, wt a somer and joystes.
1594. T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., II. To Rdr. b 3. The saide roome beganne to shake againe, so that one of the sommers of the chamber sprang out of the mortesse, and bowed downeward two feete, but fell not.
1623. Something Written Occ. Accid. Blacke Friers, 25. At an instant the maine Summer or beame brake in sunder.
1663. Gerbier, Counsel, 42. Double Mortises, which doe but weaken the Summers.
1733. W. Ellis, Chiltern & Vale Farm., 96. Mortaises made ready for Plates, Chimney Pieces, and also for Somer and Joysts.
1836. Parker, Gloss. Archit. (1850), I. 43. In a framed floor the summers were the main beams, the girders were framed into the summers, and the joists into the girders.
¶ The senses ‘large stone laid over a column in beginning a cross vault’ and ‘lintel of a door, window, etc.,’ which are given in Dicts., do not appear to be in genuine English use, but are from French: see 1728 Chambers, Cycl. (copying Dict. de Tréveux) and 1842 Gwilt, Archit., Gloss.
3. In various other technical applications.
a. pl. The framework of stout bars fitted with cross rails or staves, which is added to a cart or wagon to extend its capacity. b. A beam in the bed or body of a cart or wagon. † c. The sound-board of an organ. Obs. d. Sc. (see quot. 1825). e. In the old hand-press, a rail or cross-bar mortised into the cheeks of the press, to prevent them from spreading. f. Tanning. A horse or block on which skins are pared, scraped or worked smooth. † g. In the spinet, any of the ribs supporting the board holding the tuning-pins. Obs. h. In a lapidary’s mill, each of two opposite bars supporting the bearings of the wheels. i. ‘The large beam on the top of a cider-press … which sustains all the pressure’ (W. Som. Gloss., 1886).
a. 1510. Stanbridge, Vocabula (W. de W.), C iij. Epyredia, the somors or the rauys [mispr. rauye].
1530. Palsgr., 272/2. Somers or rathes of a wayne or carte.
1802. James, Milit. Dict., Sommers, in an ammunition waggon, are the upper sides, supported by the staves entered into them with one of their ends, and the other into the side pieces.
b. 1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 5. The bodye of the wayne of oke, the staues, the nether rathes, the ouer rathes, the crosse somer.
1886. West Som. Gloss., Summer,… (tech.) the longitudinal parts of the bottom of a wagon.
c. 1659. Leak, Waterwks., 29. The 12 holes that are in the Summer serves to conveigh the wind of the said Summer … to the Organ Pipes.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Sound-board, The Sound-board, or Summer, is a Reservoir, into which the Wind … is conducted.
d. 1662. Lamont, Diary, 15 Jan. (1810), 179. The whole roofe and symmers of that said kill were consumed, and only about 3 bolls oatts saffe.
1809. Edinb. Even. Courant, 21 Dec. (Jam.). As some servants … were … drying a quantity of oats on the kiln, the mid shimmer gave way, when three of them were precipitated into the killogy.
1825. Jamieson, Simmer, Symmer,… one of the supports laid across a kiln, formerly made of wood, now pretty generally of cast metal, with notches in them for receiving the ribs, on which the grain is spread for being kiln-dried; a hair cloth, or fine covering of wire, being interposed between the ribs and the grain.
e. 1662. Evelyn, Sculptura, II. (1906), 13. Upon the Summer or head of the Press marked C let the paper prepared and moistned for the impression lye ready.
1683. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., Printing, x. ¶ 4. This Summer is only a Rail Tennanted, and let into Mortesses made in the inside of the Cheeks.
f. 1728. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Parchment, The Skin, thus far prepared by the Skinner, is taken … by the Parchment-Maker; who first scrapes or pares it dry on the Summer.
1837. Whittock, etc., Bk. Trades (1842), 370. (Parchment-maker) The workman then stretches the skin to dry in the sun,… being done enough, it is … placed on the summer, or horse, to be again pared and smoothed with the stone.
1860. Tomlinson, Cycl. Useful Arts, Parchment Making (1867), II. 275/2. The parchment maker … stretches it tail downwards upon a machine, called the sumner, consisting of a call-skin mounted on a frame.
g. 1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), XVII. 692/2. [The spinet] consists of a chest or belly … and a table of fir glued on slips of wood called summers, which bear on the sides.
h. 1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 739. In each of these summers a square hole is cut out … which receives the two ends of the arbor (of the cutting wheel).
1882. Encycl. Brit., XIV. 299/1.
4. attrib., as (sense 1) † summer-saddle; (sense 2); summer bar, the upper summer of a lapidary’s wheel; summer-beam, -tree = sense 2 b; † summer-piece, summer-stone (see quot. 1833); † summer-trestle, ? a railed rack on a trestle-like stand.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 739. Every thing that stands above the upper *summer-bar has been suppressed in this representation.
1519. Horman, Vulg., 241 b. The carpenter or wryght hath leyde the *summer bemys [trabes] from wall to wall, and the ioystis a crosse.
1766. Complete Farmer, s.v. Balk, The summer-beam, or dorman of a house.
1859. Parker, Dom. Archit., III. II. vii. 322. The summer-beam well moulded.
c. 1429. in Willis & Clark, Cambridge (1886), II. 445. Et iij *somerpecys xijd.
1398–. Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 215. Uno *sumersadill et 2 hakenaysadilles.
1792. J. Wood, Cottages (1806), 9. The *summer stone … becomes an abutment … and support to the rest of the tabling.
1833. Loudon, Encycl. Archit., § 209. Summer stones (stones placed on a wall, or on piers, lor the support of beams, or on the lower angle of gable ends,… as an abutment of the barge stones). Ibid., § 1368. Ridge-tiles, gutter-tiles, valley-tiles, and barge and summer-stone tiles.
1452. in Willis & Clark, Cambridge (1886), I. 282. Principalls with *somere trees conuenient vnto the werk.
1623. Nottingham Rec., IV. 388. For takinge vp two summertrees.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Summer-Tree, (among Carpenters) a Beam full of Mortises, for the ends of Joists to lie in.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2453/2.
1605. Shuttleworths’ Acc. (Chetham Soc.), 170. A waller, iiij days fillinge the holles aboute the endes of the *somer trisle in the cowhowse, xijd.
