bressummer means A large, horizontal supporting beam which bears the weight of a wall starting on a first or higher floor, particularly when exposed or used to support a jetty (timber-frame overhang construction). Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 89 out of 100.
Why “bressummer” is a great word
BRESSUMMER — [Noun] A large horizontal timber beam that supports the weight of a wall above an open ground floor, enabling the construction of a jettied overhang. Its name is an alteration of 'breastsummer', from 'breast' (meaning "front or forward part") + 'summer' (an archaic term for a principal beam or girder). Unlike a 'lintel', which spans a mere opening, or a 'girder', a generic term of iron and industry, the bressummer is the burdened spine of a timber-framed house, an exposed declaration of structural intent. It is the dark, grain-rippled muscle holding aloft a gabled overhang; the stout, pegged oak shoulder upon which creaking floors rest; the visible reason an upper room can lean out over the street below—a testament to the quiet, wooden logic of old bones.
noun
- A large, horizontal supporting beam which bears the weight of a wall starting on a first or higher floor, particularly when exposed or used to support a jetty (timber-frame overhang construction).“Once the floor joists were in position, the framing of the next storey could continue, with a bressummer laid along their ends.”