Post by t-bob on Jun 21, 2019 10:03:56 GMT -5
noun
1. a principal beam or girder, as one running between girts to support joists.
Quotes
The summer was a heavy beam spanning the middle of a large room ... and it served as an intermediate support for the floor joists of the story above .... -- Hugh Morrison, Early American Architecture, 1952 The cross beams were known as girders, summers or somers, and dormants: one of them carried the chimney, and so was called the "bressummer," that is the breast girder. -- C. F. Innocent, The Development of English Building Construction, 1916
Origin
The rare noun summer “horizontal supporting beam” comes from Old French somier, sommier, which had the semantic development “packhorse,” then “a pack, a load,” and finally “a beam, a joist.” The Old French forms come from the Late Latin (c600) adjective saumārius, a variant of Late Latin (c300) sagmārius “pertaining to a packsaddle” (equus sagmārius means “packhorse”). Sagmārius derives from Late Latin (late 4th century) sagma (inflectional stem sagmat-) “packsaddle,” a loanword from Greek ságma “covering, clothing,” later also “packsaddle.” Finally, the derivative noun saumatārius (sagmatārius) “driver of a packhorse” comes into English (via Old French sommetier) as sumpter “packhorse, mule.” Summer entered English in the 14th century
1. a principal beam or girder, as one running between girts to support joists.
Quotes
The summer was a heavy beam spanning the middle of a large room ... and it served as an intermediate support for the floor joists of the story above .... -- Hugh Morrison, Early American Architecture, 1952 The cross beams were known as girders, summers or somers, and dormants: one of them carried the chimney, and so was called the "bressummer," that is the breast girder. -- C. F. Innocent, The Development of English Building Construction, 1916
Origin
The rare noun summer “horizontal supporting beam” comes from Old French somier, sommier, which had the semantic development “packhorse,” then “a pack, a load,” and finally “a beam, a joist.” The Old French forms come from the Late Latin (c600) adjective saumārius, a variant of Late Latin (c300) sagmārius “pertaining to a packsaddle” (equus sagmārius means “packhorse”). Sagmārius derives from Late Latin (late 4th century) sagma (inflectional stem sagmat-) “packsaddle,” a loanword from Greek ságma “covering, clothing,” later also “packsaddle.” Finally, the derivative noun saumatārius (sagmatārius) “driver of a packhorse” comes into English (via Old French sommetier) as sumpter “packhorse, mule.” Summer entered English in the 14th century
