summer n.1

"supply for future use" (early 15c.), "sum of money" (mid-15c.), Middle English developments of stock (n.1), but the ultimate sense connection is uncertain. Perhaps the notion is of the "trunk" from which gains are an outgrowth, or from stock (n.1) in obsolete sense of "money-box" (c. 1400). Meaning "subscribed capital of a corporation" is from 1610s.

In stock "in the possession of a trader" is from 1610s. Meaning "broth made by boiling meat or vegetables" is from 1764. Theatrical use, in reference to a company regularly acting together at a given theater, is attested from 1761. Figurative phrase take stock in "regard as important" is from 1870. As the collective term for the movable property of a farm, it is recorded from 1510s; hence livestock.

c. 1300, "driver of a pack horse," from Old French sommetier "pack-horse driver," from Vulgar Latin *sagmatarius "a pack horse driver," from Late Latin sagmat- "a pack, burden," stem of sagma "packsaddle," from Greek sagma, probably related to sattein "to pack, press, stuff." Used from mid-15c. of horses and mules for carrying loads.