Movatterモバイル変換

[0]ホーム

Jump to content

seem

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

See also:Seem

English

[edit]

Alternative forms

[edit]

seme(obsolete)

Etymology

[edit]

FromMiddle Englishsemen(“to seem, befit, be becoming”), fromOld Norsesœma(“to conform to, beseem, befit”), fromProto-Germanic*sōmijaną(“to unite, fit”), fromProto-Indo-European*sem-(“one; whole”). Cognate withScotsseme(“to be fitting; beseem”),Danishsømme(“to beseem”),Old Swedishsøma,Faroesesøma(“to be proper”). Related also toOld Norsesómi(“honour”) ( > archaicDanishsomme(“decent comportment”)),Old Norsesœmr(“fitting, seemly”),Old Englishsēman(“to reconcile, bring an agreement”),Old Englishsōm(“agreement”).

Pronunciation

[edit]

IPA^(key): /siːm/
Audio(US): (file)
Rhymes:-iːm
Homophones:seam,seme

Verb

[edit]

seem (third-person singular simple presentseems,present participleseeming,simple past and past participleseemed)

(copulative) Toappear; tolookoutwardly; to beperceived as.
She isseeming a bit downthese days. Her eyesseem blue. It must haveseemed to her she was safe. How'd sheseem to you? Heseems not to be at home. "Itseems like rain". "Itseems to me (to be) rather sleety."; "Thereseem to be a few problems."
Itseems a pity, but I can't see you this weekend.
- 15th c., “[The Creation]”, inWakefield Mystery Plays; Re-edited in George England,Alfred W. Pollard, editors,The Towneley Plays (Early English Text Society Extra Series; LXXI), London: […] Oxford University Press,1897,→OCLC,page 5:
  He is so fayre, withoutten les, / hesemys full well to sytt on des.
  He is so fair, without any limit; his appearance shows well when he sits on the dais.
- 1813 (14^thc.),Dante Alighieri,The Vision of Hell as translated by The Rev. H. F. Cary.
  He, from his face removing the gross air, / Oft his left hand forth stretch'd, andseem'd alone / By that annoyance wearied.
- 1879,R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, inThe Amateur Poacher, London:Smith, Elder, & Co., […],→OCLC:
  They burned the old gun that used to stand in the dark corner up in the garret, close to the stuffed fox that always grinned so fiercely. Perhaps the reason why heseemed in such a ghastly rage was that he did not come by his death fairly. Otherwise his pelt would not have been so perfect. And why else was he put away up there out of sight?—and so magnificent a brush as he had too. […].
- 1918,W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter II, inThe Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.:The Bobbs-Merrill Company,→OCLC:
  That the young Mr. Churchills liked—but they did not like him coming round of an evening and drinking weak whisky-and-water while he held forth on railway debentures and corporation loans. Mr. Barrett, however, by fawning and flattery,seemed to be able to make not only Mrs. Churchill but everyone else do what he desired.
- 1963,Margery Allingham, chapter 19, inThe China Governess: A Mystery, London:Chatto & Windus,→OCLC:
  Meanwhile Nanny Broome was recovering from her initial panic andseemed anxious to make up for any kudos she might have lost, by exerting her personality to the utmost. She took the policeman's helmet and placed it on a chair, and unfolded his tunic to shake it and fold it up again for him.
- 2012 August 5, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “I Love Lisa” (season 4, episode 15; originally aired 02/11/1993)”, inAV Club:
  So while Ralph generallyseems to inhabit a different, more glorious and joyful universe than everyone else here his yearning and heartbreak are eminently relateable. Ralph sometimes appears to be a magically demented sprite who has assumed the form of a boy, but he’s never been more poignantly, nakedly, movingly human than he is here.
(obsolete) Tobefit; tobeseem.
- 1590,Edmund Spenser,The Faerie Queene:
  And all within were pathes and alleies wide,
  With footing worne, and leading inward farre:
  Faire harbour that themseemes; so in they entred arre.