somigliare

Forms

somigliare (first-person singular present somìglio, first-person singular past historic somigliài, past participle somigliàto, auxiliary (transitive or intransitive) avére or (intransitive only) èssere)^[1] The literary variant is simigliare.^[2][3][1] Old Italian also had semegliare, semigliare, somegliare and similiare.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *similiāre, a verb formed from Latin similis (“similar, like”).^[5][6][7][1] Nocentini treats the Vulgar Latin verb as a variant of Late Latin similāre (“to be similar”), which is the source of sembrare.^[6] Gallo-Romance continues that shorter verb in French sembler and Occitan semblar, while Spanish semejar and Portuguese semelhar go back to the same form as the Italian word.^[6][8][9]

The ⟨o⟩ of the first syllable comes from an older ⟨i⟩: Rohlfs explains it as the rounding of an unstressed /i/ next to a labial consonant, here /m/, as in domandare, domani and dovere.^[5][10][3] The unchanged form survives in literary simigliare.^[2][3]

The Latin adjective goes back to an older *semilis, from Proto-Italic *semalis.^[11][1] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *smh₂-el-i-, Wiktionary *sem-h₂-lo-, from *sem- (“one; together”).^[11][1] Its cognates include Ancient Greek ὁμαλός (homalós, “even, level”), Old Irish samail (“like”) and Welsh hafal (“equal”).^[11][1][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI dates the first record before 1294, in Brunetto Latini, with the intransitive sense “to be like another person or thing”;^{[5][13][14][15]} Zingarelli puts the first use before 1276, and DEI and Prati name Bono Giamboni.^{[5][13][14][15]} The Italian Tesoro says of one kind of merlin that it “resembles the white lanner falcon” (somiglia al falcone laniere bianco).^[16]

Semantic evolution

By the early 14th century the verb was also reflexive, “to be like each other”, used by Dante, who has a noise in the Purgatorio that “seemed like thunder” (somigliò tonar).^[5][16] The transitive sense “to compare” is recorded in Boccaccio in 1353, and it is now literary.^[5][7] An old sense “to seem, appear” lasted into the Renaissance, as in Berni's Qual voi mi somigliate ne l'aspetto (“as you seem to me in your looks”), and is now archaic.^[2][17]

The present participle somigliante “resembling” is recorded in Florentine records of 1271, and somiglianza “likeness” at the end of the 13th century in the Novellino, with the phrase a somiglianza “in the manner of”.^[5] The prefixed assomigliare dates from the middle of the 13th century and rassomigliare from before 1304; both are synonyms of the verb.^[6][2][3]

Timeline

• Before 1294 – Brunetto Latini uses somigliare “to be like”.^[5]
• Late 13th century – Somiglianza appears in the Novellino.^[5]
• Before 1304 – Rassomigliare is first recorded.^[6]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses the reflexive “to resemble each other”.^[5]
• 1353 – Boccaccio uses the verb for “to compare”.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To resemble, be like someone or something in looks or in some quality (with a): Il piccolo somiglia molto allo zio.^[7][2][1]
2. (intransitive, archaic) To seem, appear.^[7][2][18]
3. (transitive, uncommon) To call someone or something to mind by similar features; to resemble: Quel cucciolo somiglia tutto la madre.^[7][17][1]
4. (transitive, literary) To compare one thing to another.^[7][17][1]
5. (reciprocal, somigliarsi) To look alike, be similar to each other: Le due cugine non si somigliano per niente.^[2][3][13]

Word family

• somigliante
• somiglianza
• assomigliare
• rassomigliare
• rassomigliante
• rassomiglianza
• dissomigliare
• risomigliare
• somiglievole

Related words

• simile
• sembrare
• Latin similis

Usage notes

Used intransitively, the verb takes avere or essere as its auxiliary.^[1][13] Somigliarsi come due gocce d'acqua means to be as alike as two drops of water.^[2][18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
4. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 19, 374
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3540
15. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 928
16. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
17. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
18. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli