Using the word "summer" as a verb with "I" as subject

As per online Dictionary summer means

1. noun

   • the warmest season of the year, in the northern hemisphere from June to August and in the southern hemisphere from December to February.
   • Eg: "this plant flowers in late summer"

2. verb

   • spend the summer in a particular place.
   • Eg: "well over 100 birds summered there in 1976"

I want to use summer as a verb, not in the past tense as given in the above-highlighted example, but in the future tense with I as the subject: I plan to summer in Australia this December. Is that possible?

None of the example sentences in Oxford use even the simple present tense, let alone the future like this. Is this a special verb which can only be used as a past participle?

Solution 1:

The verb to summer is definitely in use, although it seems more common among those who can actually afford to spend the entire summer somewhere.

Consider this quote from the movie Josie and the Pussycats:

Alexandra Cabot : [using a fake English accent] I used to summer on the continent. Fancy a snog?

Wyatt : Fancy a mint?

The character Alexandra appears to be trying to emulate (or mock) a member of the British upper class.

Then there's the cartoon from 1942 which appeared in Esquire magazine, featuring two women on the beach and one says to the other:

"I summer at Southampton and winter in Florida -- between seasons I turn white"

Then there's this article about a t-shirt that went viral back in 2010. The shirt featured the slogan I summer in Conshy -- Conshy being a local nickname for Conshohocken, PA, definitely not somewhere you'd expect someone to summer. Reading it, however, gives a good idea of how the verb is used.

So, to answer your questions, yes, you can definitely say

I plan to summer in Australia this December.

Note that if you simply say "I summer (somewhere)" you're indicating that, generally speaking, you spend every summer there. If your friend called you in July and asked where you were, you could say "I am summering in Florida" if that wasn't your usual destination.

Solution 2:

The OP asks whether it is 'possible' to use 'summer' as a verb and say, for example, "I plan to summer in Australia this December".

The simple answer is yes! The OED in fact gives examples of three of the seasons being used as verbs to describe passing or spending a period of time. Examples of seasons being used in this way are listed below.

However, ... a simple 'yes' doesn't fully address the OP question. It may be 'possible' to use summer as a verb - it is reasonably clear, has been said before and is therefore 'correct' - but is it a common and widely used usage?

Ordinarily, I say something like

"...the geese spend/pass the winter in the UK"

or possibly

"...the geese overwinter in the UK".

I suppose I might say

"the geese winter in the UK"

but actually this has, to my ears, a specialist - scientific - ring.

Ordinarily, I would never use a season in this way to describe my, or other individual's, seasonal movements (except in mock-serious fun). It sounds pretentious, boastful and designed to impress.

I like to "summer" in Greece

or

We usually "winter" in Zermatt

Really?!

Of course, the OP's question has an added level of complexity, because December - to a Northern hemisphere dweller - is not Summer. With this in mind I'd probably say something like

"I plan to pass a summer in Australia this December"

or

"I plan to spend this December in an Australian Summer.

Of course poetic and metaphorical usage is different.

So too is usage like this for purposes of poking fun.

SPRING

Every third man has wintered at Naples, springed at Vienna. (1835)

All [sc. the bees] wintered well and are springing well. (1885)

Humpbacks appear to spring in the northern waters, and often come close in shore. (1907)

SUMMER

Years ago..I summered in East Blue Hill. (1969)

By 1888 more than 150,000 sheep were summering in Klickitat County. (1995)

My room-mates, who had summered in P-town before, had jobs waiting for them. (2000)

WINTER

Enormous numbers of waterfowl wintered in its vast marshes. (1978)

Breckheimer wintered in Vail working as a lift operator and returned to Tolna for spring planting. (2000)

I'd seen..tractors harrowing slopes, stockmen turning sheep out to winter in the fields. (2014)

Autumn has not been used this way. Instead, it is used (rarely!) poetically and metaphorically with the sense of 'to cause to mature or deteriorate with the passing of time; to cause to age'.

Beauty it self once Autumn'd, does not tempt. (1661)

Thy green hopes died—By sorrow autumned, falsehood wintered them. (1857)

Advancing age had autumned his face. (1978)