dissimilar

Etymology

It is formed from English dis- + similar,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} on the pattern of Latin dissimilis (“unlike”)^[7][8][9] and perhaps of French dissimilaire, recorded in Paré in the 16th century.^{[2][3][4][10][8]} Skeat instead derived it from Middle French dissimilaire.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Not alike: Merriam-Webster Unabridged has a first known use of 1599,^[5] and the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English also date it to the late 16th century.^[8][9] The first quotation in the OED and Barnhart is later, from Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), in the form dissimular: “Dissimular parts, are those which wee call Organicall.”^[2][4] Etymonline gives the 1620s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its plain meaning, “unlike”, throughout.^[2] Burton used it of parts of the body, Coke's Art of Logick (1653) has a noun for dissimilar things,^[2] and Johnson (1755) defined it as “unlike; heterogeneous”, quoting Boyle on oil and Newton's Opticks on compound light.^[12] In botany it described for a time the seed-leaves, as unlike the later leaves of the plant (1672–1721).^[2] The derivatives came later: dissimilarity in the early 18th century and dissimilarly in the mid 18th.^[8]

Timeline

• 1599 – not alike, unlike.^[5] The OED's first quotation is from 1621, in Burton.^[2][4]
• 1653 – noun, dissimilar things.^[2]
• 1672 – in botany, of seed-leaves unlike the later leaves (obsolete after 1721).^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Not alike; different in appearance, properties or nature: The two sisters have dissimilar tastes in music.^[13][5][2]

Noun

1. A dissimilar thing, usually in the plural.^[2][8]

Word family

• dissimilarly
• dissimilarity

Related words

• dissimilation
• dissimilitude
• similar
• dissimulation

Usage notes

The adjective is followed mostly by to, less often by from, and rarely by with, which the Shorter Oxford marks as obsolete.^[2][8] Merriam-Webster Unabridged quotes the negative not dissimilar with both from and to.^[5]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c 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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins