Meaning

noun an acrobatic feat in which the feet roll over the head (either forward or backward) and return

verb do a somersault

originFrom French sombresault (now obsolete, compare French sursaut, soubresaut), from Old Occitan sobresalt, from sobre- (“over, above”) + salt (“jump”), from Latin suprā (“over”) + saltus (“jump”). Doublet of soubresaut. Cognate with Spanish sobresaltar (“to spook, startle”) and Portuguese sobressaltar (“to spook, scare, jump over”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0