I always used summons as a noun and summon as a verb, until I got curious about this extra -s. I did a bit of research and discovered that in fact summons exists both as a verb and as a noun.
Etymologically, OED says that both forms come from French:
- summons from somonse (past participle of somondre); earliest use in 1050
- summon from somon-, somondre (the first is the present tense stem of the verb somondre); earliest use in the beginning of the 12th century).
What I don't understand is why was there a need for both forms to exist as a verb? They seem to cover the same meaning:
- summons
- noun [ C ]
an order to come and see someone- verb [ T ]
to order someone to come to a person or place (Cambridge)
- summon
- verb [ T ]
to order someone to come to or be present at a particular place, or to officially arrange a meeting of people (Cambridge)
I see that summons has a particular usage in Law. Was this an attempt to differentiate between the language registers? Was/Is summon used more commonly in all contexts, while summons is reserved to legalese?
It seems that in the past, summon was also used in law. OED says in its etymology that it meant:
to call upon (a person) by legal process (from 12th cent. in British and continental sources)
Edit: My query is about the reason for the existence of two almost identical verbs, quite similar in meaning and form. Could not summon have done the job for both?