summons

• IPA^(key): /ˈsʌ.mənz/

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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”).

summons (plural summonses)

1. A call to do something, especially to come.
   • 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.

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

     this summons […] unfit either to dispute or disobey

   • 1818, Henry Hallam, View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages:

     special summonses by the king

2. (law) A notice summoning someone to appear in court, as a defendant, juror or witness.
   • 1955 December, “Emission of Smoke by Locomotives”, in Railway Magazine, page 812:

     Four summonses were brought recently on behalf of St. Pancras Borough Council against the British Transport Commission in respect of the emission of smoke by locomotives standing at Camden Motive Power Depot. (The summonses were dismissed)

3. (military) A demand for surrender.

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

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.

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

summons

1. plural of summon

summons

1. third-person singular simple present indicative of summon

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

• musmons