Etymology: < classical Latin consummātus lacking nothing, complete, perfect, in post-classical Latin also (perhaps) consumptive (1682 in the passage translated in quot. 1684 at sense 6), use as adjective of past participle of consummāre consummate v. With sense 6 compare earlier consumptive adj. 2b.In form consommate (compare quot. 1530 at sense 1) probably influenced by Middle French consommer (see discussion at consume v.¹, consume v.²), although the corresponding Middle French sentence in Palsgrave uses the variant spelling consummer . With the variation in stress between the first and the second syllable compare the note at consummate v.

Etymology: < classical Latin consummāt-, past participial stem (see -ate suffix³) of consummāre to add up, make up, to bring to an end, finish off, to complete, finish, to achieve, accomplish, to perfect, in post-classical Latin also to make (a marriage) complete by having sexual intercourse (from late 13th cent. in British sources) < con- con- prefix + summa sum n.¹ Compare earlier consummate adj., consummation n., and also earlier consume v.² (and see discussion at that entry).The form consommate was probably influenced by Middle French consommer consume v.² N.E.D. (1893) records also the pronunciation (kǫ̆nsɒ·meⁱt) /kənˈsʌmeɪt/, with stress on the penultimate syllable. This pronunciation is listed in dictionaries until the late 19th cent.; sporadic evidence of the shift of stress from the penultimate to the antepenultimate (i.e. the first) syllable is found from the late 18th cent. onwards, but dictionaries and especially usage guides were slow to recognize it. From the 20th cent. onwards dictionaries record only first-syllable stress. This shift of the main stress position is common to many English verbs derived < classical Latin past participial stems (see -ate suffix³); see further the note at contemplate v. The presence of /j/ preceding /ə/ in the British English pronunciation of this word and consummation (perhaps on some analogy, such as that of words ending in -ulate , etc.) seems to be first recorded in the 13th ed. of D. Jones Eng. Pronouncing Dict. (1967). In the adjective consummate adj., both penultimate and antepenultimate stress are still found. N.E.D. (1893) recorded both stress positions in the adjective, noting that penultimate stress was ‘still usual’ at the time, but antepenultimate stress was also frequent.