Somersaults

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. A move performed by rotating the body forward or backward in a vertical plane, landing on the feet or hands
2. An acrobatic movement where a person flips over, completing a full rotation while moving feet over head
3. A skillful act involving a complete inversion of the body in the air, typically in gymnastics or acrobatics

Etymology: The word "somersaults" is simply the plural of "somersault," so the real story belongs to the singular. Its earliest form was the French "sombresault," which passed through Old Occitan "sobresalt," built from "sobre-" meaning "over" or "above" and "salt" meaning "jump." Those two pieces trace back to Latin "suprā" ("over") and "saltus" ("jump"), so the word literally described leaping over something, flipping the body above the ground rather than spinning on it. The word arrived in English by way of French, and it kept the sense of a head-over-heels leap. Its close relative "soubresaut," a doublet borrowed through a different route, survives in French for a sudden startled jump, and the same Latin root gives Spanish "sobresaltar," meaning to startle or spook someone. The gymnastic sense is therefore a specific narrowing of a general idea of springing up and over.

Synonyms: flips, tumbles