summat

English

Alternative forms

• summit, sommat, sommit
• sumat, summet, zumat, zummat, zummet, zummut (19th century)
• summut, zum'ot, summot (18th–19th centuries)
• sumet (17th century)

Etymology

Dialectal variant of somewhat attested from the 18th century. Joseph Wright suggested that it might be a contraction of "some that" in A Grammar of the Dialect of Windhill (page 78).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsʌmət/, /ˈsʊmət/, /ˈzʌmət/, /ˈzʊmət/
• Homophone: summit (weak vowel merger)

Pronoun

summat (indefinite pronoun)

1. (England, especially Lancashire, Yorkshire, informal) Something.
   • 1809, Theodore Hook, “Killing No Murder”, in The Sporting Magazine, volume 34, number 202, page 185:

     ...every gentleman tips us summat, we looks for it as natural as possible.

   • 1825 October 12, Walter Scott, Letters (published 1935), IX.245

     They require the atmosphere of a cigar and the amalgam of a sum'mat comfortable.

   • 1859, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter I, in Adam Bede […], volume I, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book first, page 10:

     A man must learn summat beside Gospel to make them things.

   • 1929, John Cowper Powys, Wolf Solent, page 129:

     He were a-going to gie I summat for’n, but like enough it’ll be worth more to a gent like yourself.

   • 1947, Thomas Armstrong, King Cotton, page 53:

     Does he think I’ve been soaping up to the Governor or summat?

   • 1997 June 26, J. K. Rowling [pseudonym; Joanne Rowling], chapter IV, in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Harry Potter; 1), London: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN:

     Got summat fer yeh here – I mighta sat on it at some point, but it’ll taste all right.

   • 2006, Robin Jarvis, Thomas, page 20:

     Why go all the way to find summat that ain’t there?

   • 2013, Alex Turner (lyrics and music), “Do I Wanna Know?”, in Jamie Cook, Nick O'Malley, Matt Helders (music), AM, track 1:

     Do you ever get that fear that you can't shift the type / That sticks around like summat in your teeth?

Adverb

summat (not comparable)

1. (England, especially Lancashire, Yorkshire, informal) Something (“to a degree”); somewhat.
   • 1859, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter VIII, in Adam Bede […], volume I, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book first, page 172:

     It's summat-like to see such a man as that i' the desk of a Sunday!

Anagrams

• Sammut

Finnish

Noun

summat

1. nominative plural of summa