assimilis

Forms

assimilis (neuter assimile); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1] Also spelled adsimilis.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin ad- + similis (“like”).^[2][4] De Vaan traces similis back to Proto-Italic *semali- (“alike, together”) and Proto-Indo-European *smh₂-el-i-.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it with the genitive, in the Mercator: “as if you had never done anything like this deed”.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

It means “very like”, a strengthened similis.^[2] It takes the genitive or the dative, or is followed by quasi.^[2][3] Lewis & Short call it rare, mostly poetic and post-Augustan in prose, and found once in Cicero;^[3] Lucretius, Virgil, Ovid and Suetonius use it.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it in the Mercator and the Truculentus.^[2][5]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it in assimili ratione “in a like manner”.^[2][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it with the dative, of a black rock that seems about to fall.^[2][5]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius uses it with the dative.^[2][5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Closely resembling, very like, similar (with the genitive or dative).^[2][3]

Related words

• assimulo
• similis

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de