Make Your Point > Archived Issues > SOMERSAULT

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pronounce SOMERSAULT: Say it "SUM ur salt." To hear it, click here. connect this word to others: You can trace our word somersault back to the Latin salire, "to leap." So, somersault is cousins with words like assail, assault, salmon (they're leapers!), and sal___, a three-syllable adjective meaning "easy to notice because it seems to leap out from other things." Can you recall that last one? (To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.) definition: Our word "somersault" comes to us through French. It has Latin roots that literally mean "a leaping over." Remember Gene Wilder somersaulting onto the scene as Willy Wonka? That's how he greets the other characters, by pretending to fall over, then somersaulting instead: That's a literal somersault: a quick roll where your feet go over your head. Notice how someone turning a somersault starts and ends in the same position: standing up. So a somersault is basically a 360-degree flip, forward or backward. A figurative somersault, then, is anything that reminds you of a 360-degree flip because it moves or changes suddenly, as if turning over on itself. grammatical bits: Part of speech: Often a verb, the intransitive kind: "The project somersaulted last week." And often a noun, the countable kind: "The project turned a somersault." Other forms:  somersaulted, somersaulting how to use it: If you took gymnastics as a kid, you probably recall learning to somersault first: it's one of the easiest, most basic, least impressive acrobatic moves you can make, compared to more upright, graceful, impressive moves like cartwheels and handsprings. (Unless you somersault in midair, right? But usually it's on the floor.) With that in mind, the word "somersault" can be a fun, exciting, somewhat silly choice to describe sudden movements that remind you of kids (or people acting like kids) rolling around on the floor. "The story in 'Mr. Nobody' corkscrews and somersaults" (New York Times). "Dr. Lord... turned a moral somersault" (John Greenleaf Whittier). And, of course, you can use "somersault" in a completely literal way: "The ocean was alive with somersaulting turtles" (The Guardian). examples: "Take the recent weird weather in the UK, with the wettest February on record followed by the sunniest Spring. Meteorologists were astounded by this unprecedented weather somersault."    — Roger Harrabin, BBC, 4 June 2020 "We cannot eradicate the virus, so we must live with it. The emotional somersaults required for us to do this are exhausting. One minute people cannot see their grandchildren, the next those children are back at school."    — Suzanne Moore, The Guardian, 7 September 2020 has this page helped you understand "somersault"? Awesome, I'm glad it helped! Thanks for letting me know! If you have any questions about this word, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. study it: Explain the meaning of "somersault" without saying "tumble" or "flip over." try it out: Think of a time you or someone you know was faced with a difficult task: a task that made you scramble, clamber, and practically do flips on the floor to get it done. Fill in the blanks: "(Someone) turned somersaults and (got something done)." Example: "The political pressure to provide widespread free testing was enormous. And with little help from the White House, many states turned somersaults and delivered. Voilà!"    — Elisabeth Rosenthal, Salon, 1 August 2020 If you like, use this space to write. (To save your work, copy and paste it into an email or a document.) before you review, play: Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out. Our game for January is "Find the Missing Link." In each chain of words, find the one that's missing from the middle. This missing link, according to a thesaurus, is a synonym of each word on its left and right. But as you'll see, the words on the left and right are most definitely not synonyms!  For example, if I give you "special → _____ → typical," then you answer, "peculiar," because sometimes "peculiar" means "special, different, odd," but other times it means "typical of this, specific to this, distinctively this."  To see the answer, scroll all the way down. Your answer might be different from mine but just as good. Enjoy! Try this one today: child → _____ → splash review this word: 1. A near opposite of SOMERSAULTING is A. SITTING STILL. B. HITTING A WALL. C. FIGHTING VICIOUSLY. 2. The Onion joked, "Following the fiery derailment of a 56-car Ringling Bros. circus train Wednesday, hundreds of clowns, somersaulting acrobats, ringmasters _____, _____ giraffes, and monkeys in colorful hats were seen _____ the accident, which investigators stressed was a very serious matter and in no way funny." A. in hats .. trudging .. staring at B. on stilts .. stampeding .. fleeing C. hauling luggage .. frowning .. filing away from Answers to review questions: 1. A 2. B Answer to the game question: child → squirt → splash. a final word: I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words. From my blog:    36 ways to study words.    Why we forget words, & how to remember them.    How to use sophisticated words without being awkward. To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.