sembrare

Forms

sembrare (first-person singular present sémbro, first-person singular past historic sembrài, past participle sembràto, auxiliary èssere)^[1] The older form is sembiare, and semblare is also found.^[1][2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Occitan semblar, from Late Latin similāre (“to resemble”), a verb formed on Latin similis (“like, similar”).^{[3][4][5][6][1]} The Occitan verb has kin in French sembler, Catalan semblar and Romanian semăna.^[7] Devoto explains the ⟨-br-⟩ as an assimilation of the /l/ to the following /r/, which kept the word from the regular Italian change of /bl/ to /bj/ seen in the older ⟨sembiare⟩.^[2] Wiktionary calls it more or less a doublet of somigliare, the inherited outcome of the same Latin verb.^[1][4]

The Latin adjective continues Proto-Italic *semali- (“alike, together”), which de Vaan derives from Proto-Indo-European *smh₂-el-i-; it is related to Ancient Greek ὁμαλός (homalós, “even, level”) and Welsh hafal (“equal”).^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in Giacomino Pugliese, before 1250, in the sense “to have the appearance or look of another person or thing”.^[3][5] DEI dates it to the 13th century, in Guittone, in the sense “to resemble”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Early Italian also had the derivatives sembrabile (similar) and sembramento (likeness, and in the 14th century “opinion”).^[9] In the modern language sembrare is a linking verb, often with a dative of the person who receives the impression (mi sembra stanco), and an impersonal verb, sembra che, “it seems that”, which also gives a judgement or an opinion.^[5][6] Exclamations such as sembra impossibile! and non mi sembra vero! express surprise, joy or disbelief, and sembra ieri marks surprise at how much time has passed.^[5]

Timeline

• Before 1250 – Giacomino Pugliese uses sembrare.^[3]
• 13th century – Guittone uses it for “to resemble”.^[9]
• 14th century – Sembramento is used for “opinion”.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To seem, to appear, to give the impression of being: il tuo amico sembra simpatico, mi sembri preoccupato.^[5][6][1]
2. To look like, to resemble: con quel cappello sembri un pirata.^[5][1]
3. (impersonal) It seems, it appears likely: sembra che domani faccia freddo.^[5][1]
4. mi sembra, I think, in my opinion: mi sembra meglio partire presto.^[5][6]

Related words

• sembiante
• sembianza
• somigliare
• simile
• Old Occitan semblar
• Latin similis

Usage notes

The verb takes essere as its auxiliary.^[1][6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 400
3. ^ a b c Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3447