| 释义 |
▪ I. somerset, n.1|ˈsʌməsɛt|
Forms: α. 6–8 sommerset, 7– somerset. β. 6– summerset.
[Alteration or corruption of somersaut: see prec.]
= somersault n.
α1596Nashe Saffron Walden To Rdr., Desiring him to inspire my pen with some of his nimblest Pomados and Sommersets. 1598Marston Sco. Villanie iii. xi. 228 His very intellect Is naught but a curuetting Sommerset. 1626Fletcher Fair Maid of Inn iv. i, Now I wil only make him break his neck in doing a sommerset. 1664Cotton Scarron. i. 590 Dance, run, and leap, frisk, and curvett, Tumble, and do the Sommerset. 1727Gay Fables i. xl, The tumbler whirls the flip-flap round, With somersets he shakes the ground. 1778Sketches for Tabernacle Frames 26 He'll..Throw Somersets, vault, caper, and curvet. 1806Beresford Miseries Hum. Life vii. lxxix, Amusing the company with an involuntary somerset. 1833Ritchie Wand. Loire 233 One of those somersets—head over heels—which are common on the modern stage. 1874J. S. Blackie Self-Culture 16 If there are..expert tumblers in the circus, let him not imagine that their supple somersets are mere idle tricks to amuse children.
fig.1710Acc. Death T. Whigg 2 He fancy'd the World turn'd round with him, and that the Revolution was just about doing the Somerset. 1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. ii. iv. ii, Remark..what somersets and contortions a dead Catholicism is making. 1871Spencer Princ. Psychol. vii. vi. (1872) II. 372 After a considerable amount of practice in throwing intellectual somersets.
β1591in Lyly's Wks. (1902) I. 442 Hee presently did cast himselfe downe, dooing a Summerset from the Ile into the water. 1670Eachard Cont. Clergy (1705) 21 As if they would turn over their heads, and shew you the double Summerset. 1675[H. Nevile] Machiavelli's Marr. Belphegor Wks. 527 He [the devil] only gave him the Summerset once or twice, and shewed him two or three jugling tricks, and vanish'd. 1762Sterne Tr. Shandy v. xxix, Springing into the air with a summerset, he turned him about like a windmill. 1816Scott Fam. Lett. (1894) I. xii. 362 Authors come to be regarded as tumblers, who are expected to go to church in a summerset. 1860Tyndall Glac. i. xvi. 119 The summerset of this iceberg produced a commotion all over the lake. 1865J. G. Holland Plain Talk iii. 101 The boys of the street turning summersets.
Hence ˈsomerset v. (a) intr. To somersault. Also with it. (b) trans. To cause (a person) to turn a somersault.
1599Nashe Lenten Stuffe 37 Then the sly sheepe-biter issued into the midst, and summer setted and fliptflapt it twenty times aboue ground, as light as a feather. 1812Sporting Mag. XL. 132 Alexanders got his body on his hip, and somersetted him over his head. 1853R. S. Surtees Sponge's Sp. Tour liii. 303 A pair of white breeches summerseting in the air with a horse underneath. 1874Saxe One-Legged Dancers iv, He almost somerseted off the door-steps.
fig.1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. ii. iv. ii, In such extraordinary manner does dead Catholicism somerset and caper, skilfully galvanized.
▪ II. ˈsomerset, n.2
Also summerset.
[f. the name of Lord Fitzroy Somerset, Baron Raglan (1788–1855).]
Used attrib. or ellipt. to designate a form of saddle (see quot. 1875).
1851Catal. Grt. Exhib. 521/2 A quilted summerset saddle. Ibid. 522/2 Somerset hunting saddle-tree. 1862Catal. Internat. Exhib., Brit. II. No. 4685, Ladies' saddle and Somerset saddle. 1875Knight Dict. Mech. 2245/1 Somerset.., a saddle padded before the knee and behind the thigh. |