# Bressummer

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{{Short description|Load-bearing beam in a timber-framed building}}
thumb|A typical summer beam with slender joists in the ceiling of a cafe in the Netherlands. Image: Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands.
{{wikt}}

A '''bressummer''', '''breastsummer''', '''summer beam''' (somier, sommier, sommer, somer, cross-somer, summer, summier,<ref>''A Dictionary of the Old English Language''</ref> summer-tree,<ref>''[Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary](/source/Webster's_Dictionary)'', 1913.</ref> or dorman, dormant tree) is a load-bearing [beam](/source/beam_(structure)) in a [timber-framed](/source/Timber_framing) building. The word ''summer'' derived from sumpter or French sommier, "a pack horse", meaning  "bearing great burden or weight". "To support a superincumbent wall", "any beast of burden", and in this way is similar to a [wall plate](/source/wall_plate).

The use and definition of these terms vary but generally a bressummer is a [jetty](/source/Jettying) [sill](/source/Sill_plate) and a summer is an interior beam supporting ceiling [joist](/source/joist)s, see below:
* (UK) In the outward part of the building, and the middle floors (not in the garrets or ground floors) into which the [girder](/source/girder)s are framed. In the inner parts of a building, such beams are called "summers". It is part of the timber-frame construction in the overhanging upper story in jettying.<ref>{{1728|title=Bressummer}}</ref>
* (UK) "Horizontal beam over a fireplace opening (alternatively ''lintel'', mantel beam), or set forward from the lower part of a building to support a jettied wall, a ''jetty bressummer''".<ref>Alcock, N. W. ''Recording timber-framed buildings: an illustrated glossary''. London: Council for British Archaeology, 1989. G4, 14h, 15b. {{ISBN|1872414729}}</ref>
* (UK) "...usually the sill of the upper wall above a jetty; otherwise any beam spanning an opening and supporting a wall above."<ref>Harris, Richard. ''Discovering Timber-Framed Buildings''. 2d ed. Aylesbury: Shire Publications, 1979. p.94. {{ISBN|0747802157}}.</ref> also called a "jetty sill".
* (UK)  Breastsummer is a beam in a wall which carries the load over a large opening derived from ''breast'' being in the front, mid-level and ''summer'': "A horizontal, bearing beam in a building; spec. the main beam supporting the girders or joists of a floor...".<ref>"Breastsummer" def. 1. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) Oxford University Press 2009</ref>
* "a main piece of timber that supports a building, an architrave between two pillars"<ref>Bailey; Kennett, 1695</ref>
* "Breast-Summer, an architectural term for a beam employed like a lintel to support the front of a building, is a corruption of bressumer..."<ref>Palmer, Abram Smythe. ''Folk-Etymology: A Dictionary of Verbal Corruptions or Words Perverted in Form or Meaning, by False Derivation or Mistaken Analogy (1882)'', quoting Parker's ''Glossary of Architecture''.</ref>
* (US) "Summer beam: A large timber spanning a room and supporting smaller floor joists on both sides."<ref>Sobon, Jack.
''Build a Classic Timber-Framed House: Planning & Design/Traditional Materials/Affordable Methods''. Pownal, Vt.: Storey Communications, 1994. p.191.{{ISBN|0882668412}}</ref>
* (US) "Summer beam. Heavy main horizontal beam, anchored in gable foundation walls, that supports [forebay](/source/Pennsylvania_barn) beams and [barn](/source/barn) frame above."<ref>Ensminger, Robert F. The Pennsylvania barn: its origin, evolution, and distribution in North America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992. p.392.</ref>

==References==
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Category:Architectural elements
Category:Structural system
Category:Timber framing

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Bressummer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bressummer) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bressummer?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.