assimilate

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English assimilaten,^[2][3] borrowed from Latin assimilātus, the past participle of assimilō (“to make like, liken”),^[4][5][6][7] a variant of assimulō (“to make like, copy, imitate; feign”),^[4][5][8] from ad- (“to”) and simulō (“to make similar”), from similis (“like, resembling”).^[4][5][7] The American Heritage Dictionary traces similis to Proto-Indo-European *sem-.^[3] Barnhart sees the influence of Old French assimiler,^[5] and the OED compares the French verb, recorded from the 16th century.^[6] Klein compares assemble.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

In physiology, to take something into the body and make it part of it: before 1425, in the Middle English Chauliac, where the MED also records ben assimilat, to be similar.^[2][4][5] The OED, in an entry not fully revised since 1885, first records both the sense "to resemble" and the sense "to convert into its own substance" in 1578, in Banister's Historie of Man.^[6] Dictionary.com dates the word to 1570–80.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The verb grew along two lines, making or becoming alike and taking in and absorbing.^[6] The physiological sense of a body turning food into its own tissue is the oldest,^[4][2][6] and Johnson (1755) gave it first, quoting Bacon on birds that assimilate less than beasts.^[10] From the early 17th century the sense of absorbing was also used figuratively, by Donne.^[6] From this came the usual modern sense of taking in information or ideas and understanding them fully.^[8][11] The sense "to make like, cause to resemble" is recorded from the 1620s,^[4] 1630 in the OED,^[6] and the intransitive "to become like" from 1837.^[6] In linguistics it has meant making a sound more like a neighbouring one since 1854;^[6][4] Weekley gives French chercher, from Old French cercher, as an example of such assimilation.^[12] Dictionaries now also use it of absorbing immigrants or another group into the prevailing culture, and of such a group becoming part of it.^[13][11]

Timeline

• before 1425 – in physiology, to absorb into the body.^[2][4]
• 1578 – to convert into its own substance, as the body converts food; also, to resemble (obsolete).^[6]
• c. 1616 – to liken, compare.^[6]
• 1630 – to make like, cause to resemble.^[6] Etymonline dates this sense to the 1620s.^[4]
• before 1631 – figuratively, to absorb and incorporate, in Donne.^[6]
• 1837 – intransitive, to become like.^[6]
• 1854 – in philology, to make a sound more like a neighbouring sound.^[6][4]
• 1935 – noun, a substance that has been assimilated.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To take in information or ideas and understand them thoroughly: It took her weeks to assimilate the new regulations.^[8][11][13]
2. To absorb digested food or nutrients and make them part of the body's tissues.^[13][11][6]
3. To absorb immigrants or a distinct group into the prevailing culture; of such a group, to become part of it: The newcomers assimilated within a generation.^[13][11]
4. To make like something else; to cause to resemble.^[13][6][11]
5. In phonetics, to change a sound so that it becomes more like a neighbouring sound.^[13][11][6]

Noun

1. Something that has been assimilated, especially a substance made by a plant or animal from what it has absorbed.^[8][6][14]

Word family

• assimilator
• unassimilated
• assimilative
• assimilatory
• reassimilate

Related words

• assimilation
• similar
• simulate
• assemble
• resemble
• dissimilate

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
14. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press