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)

(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)

(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

nominative plural of summa