Where “summat” came from

Question

In Scottish English, I know that the word summat is used in place of standard something. But what's the etymology of this pronoun?

It seems unlikely to me that summat could be merely a variant pronunciation of something. It also seems likely that the sum- part is from some, as with something, though I haven't a clue what the rest of it could be.

Answer 1

The Oxford English Dictionary says summat is actually a way to say somewhat. The word comes in the following forms:

Forms: α. ME sumhwat, sumwhet ( Orm. summwhatt), ME–15 sumwhat (ME sumwhate, sumwat(t, 15 sumwhatt); ME sumquat, ME sumqwat, 15 Sc. sumquhat; ME somȝwat, ME–15 somȝwhatt, ME–16 somȝwhat; ME somwat, ME–15 somwatt; ME– somewhat. β. dial.17 sumet, 18 summat, summut, zum'ot, etc.

So summat is a quicker, dialect-version of somewhat made by omitting the /w/ sound. The OED uses it in in various examples, like this:

1859 ‘G. Eliot’ Adam Bede I. i. viii. 172 It's summat-like to see such a man as that i' the desk of a Sunday!

Or this:

Sense: Some (material or immaterial) thing of unspecified nature, amount, etc. Now arch. or dial.

1859 ‘G. Eliot’ Adam Bede I. i. i. 10 A man must learn summat beside Gospel to make them things.

I suspect that your meaning of something for summat came from this now archaic definition. Somewhat->summat, where somewhat had an original meaning along the lines of something.

Answer 2

I've always supposed it derived from somewhat. While UrbanDictionary includes "Yorkshire slang for something" among its definitions of summat, the definitions derived from somewhat or from something like that seem more compelling. Of summat's etymology, Wiktionary says "Alteration of somewhat". Online Etymology Dictionary doesn't have an entry for summat but says somewhat derives from from some + what, ca. 1200 AD.

Answer 3

It's Yorkshire for "something". Comes from the old English word "Aught", which is the opposite of naught: both are relatively archaic in BE. "Aught" means "something", "naught" means "nothing". Also see "owt" and "nowt".

Answer 4

I am currently reading an English mystery novel by Margary Allingham set in 1927. It contains the following sentence:

I've had several complaints lately of folk being scared to come along here in the evening, afraid they should be took for a rabbit or summat.

(The White Cottage by Margary Allingham circa 1927)

This seems to lean towards the definition of summat as 'something' instead of 'somewhat'. Of course, at this late date it's hard to know if this was a word in common use in 1927 or if she was using it for effect.