sum-, -sum-

1. To eat or drink something, especially in large amounts.
2. To use something in such a way that it cannot be reused or recovered afterwards.
3. To destroy something or someone completely; especially, by fire or disease.
4. To buy goods or services produced by other people.
5. Etymology: from Latin con-, "thoroughly" + sumere, "to use, to take".

1. Someone who buys goods or services: Consumers want better and safer products.
2. Someone or something that ingests something, by eating it, drinking it, or using it up.
3. In an ecological community or food chain, an organism that feeds on other organisms, or on materials derived from them.

Consumers include herbivorous and carnivorous animals, which feed on plants and other animals respectively; and also organisms including worms, fungi, and bacteria, that feed on nonliving organic material.

1. Laws and regulations that seek to protect an individual from loss of privacy due to failures or limitations of corporate customer privacy measures.
2. Consumer privacy, also known as customer privacy, involves the handling and protection of sensitive personal information that individuals provide in the course of everyday business transactions.

This involves the exchange or use of data electronically or by any other means, including telephone, fax, written correspondence, and even direct word of mouth.

Gradually, customer privacy measures alone have proven to be insufficient to deal with the many hazards of corporate data sharing, corporate mergers, employee turnover, theft of hard drives, or other data-carrying hardware from job locations.

With the advent and evolution of the internet and other electronic methods of mass communications, consumer privacy has become a major issue.

Personal information, when misused or inadequately protected, can result in identity theft, financial fraud, and other problems that collectively cost people around the world, businesses, and governments great financial losses each year.

1. The protection of the rights and interests of consumers; especially, with regard to price, quality, and safety.
2. An attitude that values the acquisition of material goods.
3. In economy, the belief that the buying and selling of large quantities of consumer good is beneficial to an economy or a sign of economic strength.

1. To conclude or to bring to completion: Sam was able to consummate a profitable business transaction with the head of the company.

Jed consummated a business transaction with the bank for the money he needed to start his automobile dealership.

2. To achieve or to fulfill: Sharon's dream was finally consummated with the publication of her first book.
3. Etymology: from Latin consummatus; from consummare, "to sum up, to make up, to complete"; from con-, "intensive" + summa, "highest degree, total". © ALL rights are reserved.

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1. Complete or perfect in every respect; perfect; faultless; skillful: James, who is just 14 years old, plays the piano with consummate ability and talent.
2. Absolutely terrible or utterly bad: Maggie's brother is considered to be a consummate liar and thief. © ALL rights are reserved.
© ALL rights are reserved.

Go to this Word A Day Revisited Index
so you can see more of Mickey Bach's cartoons.

1. An achievement or a fulfillment of an objective: At the consummation of the negotiations, the President signed the treaty.
2. Etymology: from Latin consummationem, which is from consummare, "to make up, to complete".

1. The aggregate of two or more numbers, magnitudes, quantities, or particulars as determined by or as if by the mathematical process of addition: "The sum of 5 and 11 is 16."
2. A particular aggregate or total; especially, with reference to money: "The expenses for the trip came to a reasonable sum."
3. An indefinite amount or quantity; especially, of money: "They were willing to lend small sums for emergencies."
4. A series of numbers or quantities to be added up.
5. The full amount, or the whole.
6. The substance, or gist, of a matter, comprehensively or broadly viewed or expressed: "He submitted the sum of his opinions based on his analysis of the situation."
7. A concise or brief form.
8. Etymology: from about 1290, "quantity or amount of money", from Anglo-French and Old French summe; from Latin summa, "total number, whole, essence, gist". It is the noun use of summus, "highest".

The sense development from "highest" to "total number" is probably via the Roman custom of adding up a stack of figures from the bottom and writing the sum at the top, rather than at the bottom as we do now.

Translation: "With the highest praise."

Normally a reference to graduates of schools or universities.

1. Immediately and without discussion or attention to formalities.
2. In a prompt or direct manner; immediately: Because they were goofing off, the foreman summarily fired two of the workers.
3. Etymology: from Middle Latin summarius, "of or pertaining to the sum or substance"; from Latin summa, "whole, gist"; from summus, "highest".

1. To give a shortened version of something that has been said or written by stating its main points: Mrs. Clever asked her students to summarize the stories they had finished reading by specifying the main characters and a giving a brief description of the plot.
2. To recapitulate the most important and pertinent facts; to review: The teacher was asked to write the minutes and summarize the relevant and significant points stated in the staff meeting.

1. A shortened version of something that has been said or written, containing only the main points: Marvin had time for just a summary report regarding the traffic accident that he saw.
2. A presentation of the substance of something in a condensed form; a concise repetition: Harry made a summary of what happened at the football game.
3. Performed speedily and without ceremony: The reporter's summary of the criminal case omitted its most important facts.
4. Etymology: from Latin summas, "highest".

1. The final summing-up of an argument in a court of law.
2. A summary of something that has been said or written.
3. A total amount or aggregate of something.
4. The process of adding something up to find a total.
5. Etymology: from Modern Latin summationem, summatio, "an adding up" from Late Latin summatus and summare, "to sum up" from Latin summa with the use of the feminine of summus, "highest".

1. The highest point or part, as of a hill, a line of travel, or any object; top; apex.
2. The greatest point of attainment or aspiration: the summit of one's ambition: Joe is now at the summit of his career as a salesman for his company.
3. A lavish state or degree.
4. The prominent level of diplomatic or other governmental officials: A meeting of nations was planned for the summit next week.
5. Etymology: from Latin summus, "highest".