assimilation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English assimilacioun,^[2] borrowed from Old French assimilacion^[3][4] or directly borrowed from Latin assimilātiō (“likeness, similarity”).^[5][6][7] Merriam-Webster takes it as probably from Medieval Latin assimilātiō in the sense of physiological assimilation.^[8] The Latin noun is formed from the past participle of assimilō (“to make like”), also assimulō,^[3][7][8] from ad- (“to”) and similis (“like”),^[3][9][7][4] from Proto-Indo-European *sem- (“one”).^[9] The d of the prefix became s before the following s, itself an example of assimilation.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The conversion of food into the substance of the body: probably before 1425, in a Middle English translation of Chauliac's surgery, where it renders Latin assimilationem.^[2] Etymonline dates the word to the early 15th century, in reference to the body's use of nutrition,^[3] and Barnhart to probably before 1425.^[4] The 1989 edition of the OED, not revised for this word, has no record before 1605.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The word began in medicine and physiology.^[2][3] From 1605 it is recorded for the action of making or becoming like, or likeness itself;^[5] Bacon used it in 1626 for the conversion of material into a similar substance, especially by a living organism.^[5][3] Johnson (1755) gave three senses: converting a thing to the nature of another, the state of being assimilated, and growing like another being, quoting Bacon on the assimilation of nourishment.^[11] A figurative use followed in Burke (1790),^[5][3] then technical senses in philology (1850), psychology (1855, in H. Spencer, for taking in new ideas by relating them to those already held) and geology (1903).^[5][3] The social sense, a minority group taking on the customs and attitudes of the dominant culture, is in the American Heritage Dictionary.^[12] In Australia, governments adopted policies of assimilation towards Aborigines from the late 1930s and towards non-British post-war migrants in the 1950s and 1960s; these met strong resistance and gave way to integration and multiculturalism.^[13] In Canada the word names the policy of encouraging or forcing Aboriginal people into mainstream society, which underlay the residential schools.^[14]

Timeline

• probably before 1425 – the conversion of food into the body's own substance.^[2][4]
• 1605 – likeness; the action of making or becoming like.^[5]
• 1626 – conversion into a similar substance, especially by a living organism, in Bacon.^[5] Etymonline dates this sense to the 1620s.^[3]
• 1790 – figurative, in Burke.^[5][3]
• 1850 – in philology, the change of a sound to resemble a neighbouring one.^[5]
• 1855 – in psychology, the taking in of new ideas through existing ones.^[5][3]
• 1903 – in geology, the absorption of foreign matter by a magma.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The process by which a minority group or immigrants gradually take on the customs and attitudes of the dominant culture: The community resisted assimilation for three generations.^[12][13]
2. The act or process of assimilating, or the state of being assimilated, as of information or ideas taken in and understood.^[9][15][8]
3. (physiology) The conversion of absorbed nutrients into living tissue; constructive metabolism.^[9][15][6]
4. (linguistics) The change of a speech sound so that it becomes like or identical to a neighbouring sound, as when in- becomes im- in imbalance.^[9][15][10]
5. (psychology) The taking in of new facts or experiences in a way consistent with what the mind already holds.^[15][5]
6. (geology) The absorption of foreign material by a magma.^[5]
7. (Australia, Canada, historical) The government policy of making Aboriginal peoples or migrants merge into the majority society.^[13][14]

Word family

• antiassimilation
• assimilationist
• nonassimilation
• reassimilation

Related words

• assimilate
• similar
• simulate
• assemble
• dissimilation

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 c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, 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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
13. ^ a b c Moore, Bruce, ed. (2004), The Australian Oxford Dictionary, 2nd ed., Melbourne: Oxford University Press
14. ^ a b Dollinger, Stefan, ed., A Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles, 3rd ed. (online), Vancouver: University of British Columbia, dchp.arts.ubc.ca
15. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster