Copyright

The twenty-third entry is la sommation de cesser, and its noun is spelt almost exactly like an English word that has nothing to do with it. « Summation » means adding up — the sigma in a formula, the total at the foot of a column — and in an American courtroom it names the closing speech. None of that is here. Une sommation is a demand with a deadline and a threat behind it, and its verb is sommer quelqu’un de faire quelque chose: il a été sommé de s’expliquer, la société est sommée de retirer les copies. The letter in this list is what a British solicitor sends as « a cease-and-desist letter », and it is the step before court, not the court itself. The word also turns up in public order, where les sommations are the formal warnings the police must give before dispersing a crowd, so tirer sans sommation is to open fire without warning. A mathematician does say la sommation for adding up a series, which is exactly why the confusion survives. On a law firm’s letterhead, read « demand » or « formal notice », never « sum ».