semellar

Galician

Etymology

From Old Galician-Portuguese semellar, from Vulgar Latin *similiāre, from Latin similāre, from Latin similis (“similar”). Cognate with Portuguese semelhar, Spanish semejar, French sembler.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /semeˈʎaɾ/

Verb

1. (intrantive, impersonal) to seem

   Semella que vai chover

   It seems that it is going to rain

   • 1370, Ramón Lorenzo (ed.), Crónica troiana. A Coruña: Fundación Barrié, page 689:

     Et alí cresçerõ toruões et coriscos et rrelánpagos tã grandes et tã brauos et tã desmesurados que semellaua que todo o mũdo quiría peresçer.

     And there grew such large thunders and rain and lightning, so wild and so boundless, that it seemed that the whole world wanted to perish

2. (transitive) to resemble; to imitate

   Anoxado semella unha fera

   He resembles a fear when angry

3. (takes a reflexive pronoun) to resemble, to look alike

   Os irmáns seméllanse moito

   The brother look alike very much

   Synonyms: imitar, parecer

4. (takes a reflexive pronoun) to think, to suspect

   Seméllame que vai chover

   I think that it is going to rain

   Synonyms: coidar, pensar

Derived terms

• asemellar
• semellábel
• semellante
• semellanza

References

• Template:R:DDGM
• “semel” in Xavier Varela Barreiro & Xavier Gómez Guinovart: Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval. SLI / Grupo TALG / ILG, 2006–2018.
• Template:R:DDLG
• Template:R:TILG
• “semellar” in Álvarez, Rosario (coord.): Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués, Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega.

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Old Portuguese

Etymology

From Vulgar Latin *similiāre, from Late Latin similāre, present active infinitive of similō, from Latin similis (“similar”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /se.me.ˈʎaɾ/

Verb

semellar

1. to resemble
   • 13th century CE, Alfonso X of Castile, Cantigas de Santa Maria, Códice de los músicos, cantiga 384 (facsimile):

     ⁊ a outra dazur era / coor mui marauilloſa / que ao çeo ſemella […]

     And the other was blue / a marvelous colour / which resembles the sky […]

Related terms

• semellante
• semllança

Descendants

• Galician: semellar
• Portuguese: semelhar