Etymologically
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assomigliare

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Pronunciation

  • /as.so.miʎˈʎa.re/[1]

Forms

assomigliare (first-person singular present assomìglio, first-person singular past historic assomigliài, past participle assomigliàto, auxiliary (transitive or intransitive) avére or (intransitive only) èssere)[1] The older form is assimigliare (now literary).[2][3][4] Old Italian also had northern and southern forms such as Old Italian asemelliare and Old Italian asimigliare.[5]

Etymology

For Nocentini, GRADIT and Devoto–Oli it is inherited from Vulgar Latin *assimiliāre, built on Latin similis (“like, similar”) with the prefix ad-.[6][7][8][9] Meyer-Lübke set up the same base, with the outcomes Spanish asemejar and Portuguese assemelhar and a Logudorese form.[10] DELI and Zingarelli instead form it in Italian, from Italian a- + somigliare, with an intensive prefix, and Devoto saw the Latin verb crossed with the simple Italian verb.[2][11][12] It is the popular counterpart of the learned assimilare and a doublet of assembrare.[3][1]

The change of Latin /i/ to /o/ before /m/ is a rounding of the vowel by the labial consonant.[3] De Vaan derives the Latin adjective from Proto-Italic *semalis, from Proto-Indo-European *sm̥h₂-el-i-, and relates it to Ancient Greek ὁμαλός (homalós, “level, equal”) and Old Irish samail (“likeness”).[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in Giacomo da Lentini, between about 1230 and 1250.[5] DELI dates the form asimigliare to Bonagiunta Orbicciani before 1257, with the sense “to compare”, and the intransitive “to be like” to the Italian translation of Brunetto Latini's Tesoro at the end of the 13th century.[2][7]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the verb meant to compare and to describe by a simile, to be like or look like, to seem, and to make oneself like a model, in religious writing like God.[5] The form assomigliare appears in Bartolomeo da San Concordio before 1347, in both the transitive and intransitive senses.[2]

Tommaseo defined the transitive verb as seeing a likeness and expressing it in words, and quoted Machiavelli comparing Fortune to a torrent.[4] Today “to resemble” is the main sense;[7][8][11] “to compare” and “to make like” are literary or uncommon.[7][8][11] The reciprocal assomigliarsi is common, as in the proverb chi s'assomiglia si piglia, “birds of a feather flock together”.[11]

Timeline

  • c. 1230–1250 – Giacomo da Lentini has the first record.[5]
  • Before 1257 – Bonagiunta uses asimigliare “to compare”.[2][7]
  • End of the 13th century – The Italian Tesoro has assimigliare “to be like”.[2]
  • Before 1347 – Bartolomeo da San Concordio uses the form assomigliare.[2]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (intransitive) To resemble, to look like (a): La bambina assomiglia molto al nonno.[7][8][3][1]
  2. (transitive, literary) To make like: Quel cappello lo assomiglia a un pescatore.[7][8][11]
  3. (transitive, literary) To compare (to): assomigliare la vita a un viaggio.[7][3][1]
  4. assomigliarsi (reciprocal): to look alike: Le due sorelle non si assomigliano per niente.[8][3][9]

Word family

  • rassomigliare
  • assomigliante
  • assomiglianza

Usage notes

The intransitive verb takes avere or essere.[11][1] The proverb chi s'assomiglia si piglia and the comparison assomigliarsi come due gocce d'acqua (to be as like as two peas) are common.[11][9]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  3. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  4. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  5. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  6. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  8. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  9. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  11. ^ a b c d e f g Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  12. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 45
  13. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill