summons

summons

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsʌ.mənz/

Etymology 1

From Middle English somouns (“order or command to do something”), borrowed from Old French sumunce (modern French semonce), from Vulgar Latin *summonsa, a noun use of the feminine past participle of summoneō, summonēre (“to summon”).

Noun

summons (plural summonses)

1. A call to do something, especially to come.
   • 1818, Henry Hallam, View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages

     special summonses by the king

   • 1661, John Fell, The Life of the Most Learned, Reverend and Pious Dr. H. Hammond

     this summons […] unfit either to dispute or disobey

   • 1630, John Hayward, The Life and Raigne of King Edward VI

     He sent to summon the seditious, and to offer pardon […] ; but neither summons nor pardon was any thing regarded.

2. (law) A notice summoning someone to appear in court, as a defendant, juror or witness.
3. (military) A demand for surrender.

Descendants

• → Bengali: সমন (sômôn)
• → Cebuano: sumon
• → Malay: saman
  • → English: saman
  • → English: summon

Translations

call to do something, especially to come

Azerbaijani: çağırış (az) Bulgarian: призив (bg) m (priziv) Catalan: citació (ca) f Czech: výzva (cs) f Dutch: oproep (nl) m Finnish: kutsu (fi) (general); kokouskutsu (fi) (to a formal meeting) French: convocation (fr) f Galician: chamamento (gl) m German: Aufforderung (de) f Greek: Ancient: κλῆσις f (klêsis) Irish: toghairm f Italian: convocazione (it) f, adunanza (it) f Japanese: 呼び出し (yobi-dashi) Portuguese: convocação (pt) f Russian: вы́зов (ru) m (výzov) Spanish: convocatoria (es) f Swedish: kallelse (sv) c

notice summoning someone to appear in court

Azerbaijani: çağırış (az) Bengali: সমন (bn) (sômôn) Bulgarian: призовка f (prizovka) Catalan: compareixença (ca) f Cebuano: sumon Czech: předvolání n Finnish: haaste (fi) (as defendant); kutsu (fi) (as juror or witness) French: citation à comparaître (fr) f German: Vorladung (de) f Greek: Ancient: κλῆσις f (klêsis) Hungarian: idézés (hu), beidézés Irish: fógra m, toghairm f Italian: citazione (it) f Japanese: 召喚 (ja) (shōkan) Portuguese: intimação (pt) f Russian: пове́стка (ru) f (povéstka) Spanish: citación (es) f Swedish: kallelse (sv) c Thai: หมายเรียก (th) (mǎai-rîiak) Welsh: gwŷs f

Verb

summons (third-person singular simple present summonses, present participle summonsing, simple past and past participle summonsed)

1. (transitive) To serve someone with a summons. [17th C.]
   • 2007 March 15, The Guardian, page 1:

     It proposes that those held in the prototype Selfridges cells be kept for a maximum of four hours to have their identity confirmed and be charged, summonsed or given a fine.

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

summons

1. Third-person singular simple present indicative form of summon

Further reading

• summons on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Summons in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Anagrams

• musmons