dissimulate en · VERB · etymology 1
Pronunciation
- /dɪˈsɪmjʊˌleɪt/
- (US) audio
- /-jə-/
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English dissimulaten, dissimilaten, from Latin dissimulātus + -en (“verb-forming suffix”), perfect passive participle of dissimulō (“to conceal, to pretend, to neglect”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from dissimilis (“unlike”) + -ō (verb-forming suffix). Compare the obsolete dissimule (“to conceal, disguise”), from Old French dissimuler (French dissimuler), ultimately from the same Latin root. Doublet of dissemble, dissimilate, and dissimule.
Meanings
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(intransitive) To practise deception by concealment or omission, or by feigning a false appearance; to dissemble.
But now, as he paced alone in his apartment, now that he was not upon exhibition, now when there was no eye to behold him, and there was no reason to dissimulate or veil a single thought or feeling, his look was anything but open; the last trace of frankness disappeared; the muscles at mouth and eyes shifted; lines and planes intermingled and altered subtly; there was a moment of misty transformation – and the face of another man emerged. It was the face of a man uninstructed in mercy; it was a shrewd and planning face: alert, resourceful, elaborately perceptive, and flawlessly hard.
1913, Booth Tarkington, chapter 13, in The Flirt, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, →OCLC, page 212:
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(transitive) To disguise or hide by adopting a false appearance; to dissemble.
[P]ublic feeling required the meagreness of nature to be dissimulated by tall barricades of frizzed curls and bows.
1871, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter III, in Middlemarch […], volume I, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book I, page 38:
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(rare, transitive) To connive at; to wink at; to pretend not to notice.
That al thyng be forgiven to theim that be olde and broken, and to theim that be yonge and lusty to dissimulate for a time, and nothyng to be forgiuen to very yong children.
1533 John Bourchier (Lord Berners), The Golden Boke of Marcus Aurelius 9
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| dissimulates | Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres | lexicographic | |
| dissimulated | Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part | lexicographic | |
| dissimulated | Tense=Past | lexicographic | |
| dissimulating | Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part | lexicographic |
Deriveds
dissimulatingly · undissimulated
Relateds
Translations (11)
mi whakatuapeka (to deceive by concealment or omission) · el αποκρύπτω (to deceive by concealment or omission) · bg преструвам се (to deceive by concealment or omission) · bg симулирам (to deceive by concealment or omission) · mi tuapeka (to deceive by concealment or omission) · el συγκαλύπτω (to deceive by concealment or omission) · de sich verstellen (to deceive by concealment or omission) · es tapiñar (to deceive by concealment or omission) · cs přetvařovat se (to deceive by concealment or omission) · no fortie (to deceive by concealment or omission) · es disimular (to deceive by concealment or omission)