somersault (variants: summersault, somerset, summerset)
noun & verb

- a rolling movement or jump, either forwards or backwards, in which you turn over completely, with your body above your head, and finish with your head on top again

Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary

- (fig.) a complete reversal, as of sympathies or opinions

American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language


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WORD ORIGIN

Somersault was borrowed from the Middle French sombresault, from the Old Provencal sobresaut (sobre = over + saut = jump) and further from Latin supra (over) and saltus (to leap).

Somersaults can be seen in ancient drawings from China, Egypt and Persia. They have also long been used as forms of entertainment in circuses, theatre and opera. Today, somersaults are part of many gymnastics routines and are also used in competitive springboard and platform diving. Even football players have taken up somersaulting as a way of celebrating goals.

But no one takes the art of somersaulting as seriously as Ashrita Furman from New York. Among other Guinness Book of World Record titles, Mr. Furman holds the record for the most continuous somersaults. He somersaulted 8,341 times along a 12.5-mile stretch of road in Massachusetts.

Other records he is holding or once held are:

- milk bottle balancing on a head: 80.95 miles without spilling a drop of milk

- hopping on one foot: fastest mile, 27 minutes and 51 seconds

- hula hoop racing: fastest 10 kilometres, 1 hour, 25 minutes and 9 seconds without losing the hula hoop

- egg crushing with head: most eggs in 30 seconds, 39

- underwater juggling: longest time juggling 3 balls without a drop, 48 minutes and 36 seconds

- most concurrent Guinness World Records by one person, as of December 2007, Mr. Furman held 86 records

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SYNONYMS

roll over, tumble, flipflop

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Practice OWAD in a conversation:

"I slipped on the wet steps and did a SOMERSAULT onto the pavement. Luckily I only got a few scratches and bruises."