The story
From summit + disease, from the tendency of infected insects to climb to the upper parts of plants before dying.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
summit disease
sum·mit dis·easeToday it means: A disease (usually fungal, caused by the species complex Entomophaga grylli) that affects various species of insect, especially grasshoppers, whereby the infected individual typically climbs to the upper parts of a plant, attaches itself there and dies, at which point the infecting agent disperses itself, usually in the form of spores. Full definition →