semblance
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semblance
- /ˈsɛmblən(t)s/ US, UK
Rhymes with -ɛmbləns
Where it comes from
From Middle English semblaunce (“outward appearance, form; appearance without reality; condition or fact of being apparent; symbolic image; facial expression, countenance; conduct, manner; image, likeness; analogy, comparison”), from Anglo-Norman semblaunce and Old French semblance (modern French semblance), from semblant, the present participle of sembler (“to appear; to resemble, seem”), from Late Latin similāre, the present active infinitive of similō, a variant of Latin simulō (“to act or behave as if; to imitate, simulate”), from similis (“like resembling, similar to”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sem- (“one; together”)) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs). By surface analysis, semble + -ance (suffix forming nouns denoting conditions or states).
noun semblances · semblaunce
- The outward appearance or form of a person or thing. Oft haue I ſeene a timely-parted Ghoſt, / Of aſhy ſemblance, meager, pale, and bloodleſſe, […]
- Followed by of: the outward appearance of a person or thing when regarded as similar to that of another person or thing. O povverfull Loue, that in ſome reſpects makes a Beaſt a Man: in ſom other, a Man a beaſt. You vvere alſo (Iupiter) a Svvan, for the loue of Leda: O omnipotent Loue, hovv nere the God drevv to the complexion of a Gooſe: a fault done firſt in the forme of a beaſt, (O Ioue, a beaſtly fault:) and then
- Followed by of: the outward appearance of a person or thing which is different from what the person or thing actually is; also, an outward appearance of a thing which does not actually exist. And other diuels that ſuggest by treaſons, / Do botch and bungle vp damnation, / VVith patches, colours, and vvith formes being fetcht / From gliſt'ring ſemblances of piety: […]
- Followed by of: a person or thing that is seen; an apparition, a vision. Still she bears her weird [charm or spell] alone, / In the Valley of Saint John. / And her semblance oft will seem / Mingling in a champion's dream, / Of her weary lot to plain, / And crave his aid to burst her chain.
- Followed by of: a person or thing that looks similar to another person or thing; a likeness. Then call them not the Authors of their ill, / No more then vvaxe ſhall be accounted euill, / VVherein is ſtampt the ſemblance of a Deuill.
- Followed by of: a bare or mere appearance of something. When the former [Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset] wished to put his own brother [Thomas Seymour, 1st Baron Seymour of Sudeley] to death, without even the semblance of a trial, he found a ready instrument in [Thomas] Cranmer.
- A person's non-verbal behaviour or demeanour which shows their feelings, thoughts, etc., or which is faked to hide such true feelings, thoughts, etc. And of truth the Protectour [later Richard III of England] and the Duke of Buckingham [Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham] made very good ſembleaunce vnto the Lord Haſtinges [William Hastings, 1st Baron Hastings], and kept him much in their company.
- In the form make semblance: an act of appearing; an appearance, a manifestation; also, a false appearance, a pretence. [T]hey all make ſemblance of loathing Piero, and knit their fiſts at him; […]
- The quality or state of being similar; likeness, resemblance, similarity. I find that holy VVrit in many places / Hath ſemblance vvith this method, vvhere the caſes / Doth call for one thing, to ſet forth another: / Uſe it I may then, and yet nothing ſmother / Truths golden Beams; Nay, by this method may / Make it caſt forth its rayes as light as day.
- The chance of something happening; likelihood, probability. And yet ſome ſemblance there is that it [a law] vvas yet more ancient, even in the time of Hen[ry] I. if I miſtake not the ſence of that clauſe in his lavvs concerning vagabonds; […]
