semblant

English

Alternative forms

• semblaunt (obsolete)

Etymology

Borrowed from French semblant. Doublet of simulant.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɛmblənt/

Noun

semblant (plural semblants)

1. (obsolete) One's outward appearance.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     But vnder simple shew and semblant plaine / Lurckt false Duessa secretly vnseene […]

Derived terms

• make semblant

Adjective

semblant (comparative more semblant, superlative most semblant)

1. (obsolete) Like; resembling.
   • 1709, Mat[thew] Prior, “An Epistle during the Queen's Picture”, in Poems on Several Occasions, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC:

     their eyes survey
     The semblant shade

2. (obsolete) Seeming, rather than real; apparent.
   • 1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, (please specify |book=I or IV, or the page):

     [C]ommands ... that there be a just real union [of Scotland and England] as of brother and brother, not a false and merely semblant one as of slave and master.

Catalan

Etymology

Inherited from Late Latin similantem, present active participle of similāre (“resemble”), a verb based on Latin similis (“similar”). By surface analysis, semblar +‎ -ant.

Adjective

semblant m or f (masculine and feminine plural semblants)

1. similar
2. such

   Synonym: tal

   No és lícit de recórrer a semblants mitjans.

   It's not right to resort to such means.

Derived terms

• semblantment
• versemblant

Related terms

• semblança

Verb

semblant

1. gerund of semblar

Further reading

• “semblant” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “semblant”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
• “semblant” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “semblant” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

French

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Participle

semblant

1. present participle of sembler

Noun

semblant m (plural semblants)

1. a semblance (of something)

Derived terms

• faire semblant
• faux-semblant

Further reading

• “semblant”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.