Etymologically
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resemble

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Pronunciation

  • /ɹɪˈzɛmbəl/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English resemblen, borrowed from Old French resembler (“to be like”) (12th century; modern ressembler), also Anglo-Norman,[2][3][4][5][6] from re- and sembler (“to seem, appear, be like”),[2][5][7][8] from simulō (“to make like, imitate, copy”), also similō,[2][3][9][10] from similis (“like”), the source of similar.[2][11][5] The prefix is perhaps intensive, so that the French verb meant "to be very like".[2][11][3] The Anglo-Norman verb is recorded from the early 12th century, also in the sense "to compare".[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

To be like, to have a likeness to another person or thing: 1340, in the Ayenbite of Inwyt.[4][3][2]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the verb also meant to make something similar to another (a1393, Gower), to depict or make an image of (a1393, to 1638), to imitate (Chaucer's Boece, ?c1400) and to seem or appear (?a1425, to 1565), all now obsolete.[4] The sense "to compare, liken", recorded from c1400 in Piers Plowman, is now rare and archaic;[4][9] it was the first sense Johnson (1755) gave,[13] and it survived in North Lincolnshire dialect, as in the King James Bible's "Whereunto shall I resemble it?" (Luke 13:18).[14] The noun resemblance, likeness, is recorded before 1393 in Gower's Confessio Amantis, borrowed from Anglo-French.[3][6]

Timeline

  • 1340 – to be like.[4][3]
  • a1393 – to depict, make an image of (obsolete).[4]
  • a1393 – resemblance.[3]
  • c1400 – to compare, liken.[4]
  • ?c1400 – to imitate (obsolete).[4]
  • ?a1425 – to seem, appear (obsolete).[4]

Modern meaning

Verb

  1. To be similar to or look like: She strongly resembles her grandmother.
  2. (archaic) To compare or liken.

Word family

  • resembler
  • resemblingly
  • resemblance

Usage notes

The OED also records an obsolete resemble, "to assemble, bring together" (a1450–1622), formed from re- and semble.[4]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  9. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  11. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  12. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  14. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)