somersault

English

Somersault, from Eadweard Muybridge's Animal Locomotion

Alternative forms

• somerset, summersault (archaic)

Etymology

From French sombresault (now obsolete, compare French sursaut, soubresaut), from Old Occitan sobresalt, from sobre- (“over, above”) + salt (“jump”), from Latin supra (“over”) + saltus (“jump”).

Cognate with Spanish sobresaltar (“to spook, startle”) and Portuguese sobressaltar (“to spook, scare, jump over”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈsʌməˌsɒlt/, /ˈsʌməˌsɔːlt/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (Northern England) IPA^(key): /ˈsʊməˌsɒlt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈsʌmɚˌsɔlt/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /ˈsʌmɚˌsɑlt/

Noun

somersault (plural somersaults)

1. Starting on one's feet, an instance of rotating one's body 360 degrees while airborne or on the ground, with one's feet passing over one's head.

   Synonyms: salto, summy (colloquial)

Derived terms

• back somersault
• front somersault
• somersault signal
• summy

Translations

the act of going head over heels

• Aromanian: tumbã f
• Bulgarian: салто n (salto)
• Catalan: tombarella (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 筋斗 (zh) (jīndǒu), 跟頭 / 跟头 (zh) (gēntou)

• Czech: salto (cs) n, kotrmelec (cs) m
• Danish: saltomortale (da) c
• Dutch: salto (nl) m
• Estonian: kukerpall (on the ground), salto (in air)
• Finnish: voltti (fi)
• French: salto (fr) m, saut périlleux (fr) m, galipette (fr) f
• Galician: pinchagato, pirueta m, viravolta f, reviravolta f, pinchacarneiro m, chumbalagato
• Georgian: ჰაერში გადატრიალება (haerši gadaṭrialeba), მიწაზე გადატრიალება (mic̣aze gadaṭrialeba), სალტო (salṭo), მალაყი (malaq̇i), გადატრიალება (gadaṭrialeba), გადაკოტრიალება (gadaḳoṭrialeba)
• German: Salto (de) m, Überschlag (de) m, Kopsibolter m, Purzelbaum (de) m
• Greek: κυβίστηση (el) f (kyvístisi), τούμπα (el) f (toúmpa)
• Hebrew: סַלְטָה (he) f (sálta) (airborne), גִּלְגּוּל m (gilgúl) (on the ground)
• Hungarian: szaltó (hu), (roll in gymnastics) bukfenc (hu)
• Icelandic: kollhnís m, heljarstökk n
• Ido: kulbuto (io)
• Irish: aer-rothlú m
• Italian: capriola (it) f
• Japanese: 宙返り (ja) (ちゅうがえり, chūgaeri)
• Kazakh: сальто (salto)
• Korean: 공중제비 (gongjungjebi)
• Latgalian: kiuliņs
• Latvian: kūlenis
• Macedonian: са́лто n (sálto)
• Maltese: kukrumbajsa f
• Maori: pōtēteke, pōteketeke, turupeke
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: salto (no) m, saltomortale m

  Nynorsk: salto m, saltomortale m

• Polish: salto (pl) n, koziołek (pl) m, przewrót (pl) m (on the ground)
• Portuguese: salto mortal m (in the air), cambalhota (pt) f (on the ground)
• Romanian: tumbă (ro) f, rostogolire (ro) f
• Russian: кульби́т (ru) m (kulʹbít), кувыро́к (ru) m (kuvyrók), са́льто (ru) n (sálʹto)
• Serbo-Croatian: salto (sh) m
• Slovak: kotrmelec m, kotúľ m, salto n
• Spanish: voltereta (es) f (by a child), salto mortal (acrobatics), volatín m
• Swahili: kichwangomba
• Swedish: kullerbytta (sv) c
• Tagalog: balintong
• Turkish: perende (tr)
• Ukrainian: са́льто n (sálʹto), пере́кид m (perékyd), пере́верт m (perévert)
• Welsh: tin-dros-ben m, trosben m

Verb

somersault (third-person singular simple present somersaults, present participle somersaulting, simple past and past participle somersaulted)

1. To perform a somersault.

   The performer somersaulted all the way across the stage.

Translations

to perform somersault

• Bulgarian: правя салто (pravja salto)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 打關斗 (daa² gwaan¹ dau²)

  Mandarin: 翻筋斗 (zh) (fān jīndǒu), 翻跟頭 / 翻跟头 (zh) (fān gēntou)

• Czech: dělat kotrmelec impf, udělat kotrmelec pf, dělat salto impf, udělat salto pf
• Finnish: tehdä voltti
• Hungarian: szaltózik (hu), (performing a roll in gymnastics) bukfencezik (hu), bukfencet vet
• Ido: kulbutar (io)
• Maori: pōtēteke, pōteketeke, turupeke
• Portuguese: dar um mortal
• Serbo-Croatian: skakati salto, praviti salto
• Swedish: göra en kullerbyta
• Tagalog: bumalintong

See also

• flip