Lewis & Short

Parsing inflected forms may not always work as expected. If the following does not give the correct word, try Latin Words or Perseus.

as-sĭmŭlo (adsĭmŭlo, Ritschl, Lachmann, Fleck., B. and K., Rib., Halm in Tac.; assĭmŭlo, Merk.; adsĭmĭlo, Halm in Quint., Tisch.), āvi, ātum, 1, v. a. and n. Lit., to make one thing like another, to consider as similar, to compare (in the class. period rare): Linquitur, ut totis animalibus adsimulentur, that they are like complete animals, Lucr. 2, 914: nolite ergo adsimulari iis, be like them, Vulg. Matt. 6, 8; 7, 24: simile ex specie comparabili aut ex conferundā atque adsimulandā naturā judicatur, Cic. Inv. 1, 28, 42: pictor, perceptā semel imitandi ratione, adsimulabit quidquid acceperit, Quint. 7, 10, 9: nec cohibere parietibus deos neque in ullam humani oris speciem adsimulare, Tac. G. 9: convivia assimulare freto, Ov. M. 5, 6: formam totius Britanniae bipenni adsimulavere, Tac. Agr. 10; so id. A. 1, 28; 15, 39: os longius illi adsimulat porcum, Claud. Eid. 2, 6: cui adsimilāstis me, Vulg. Isa. 46, 5; ib. Marc. 4, 30: quam (naturam) Gadareus primus adsimulāsse aptissime visus est, to have designated by very suitable comparisons, Suet. Tib. 57.

  • II. To represent something that is not, as real, to imitate, counterfeit, to pretend, to feign, simulate; constr. usu. with acc.; ante-class. with inf., acc. and inf., or with quasi; v. assimilis (mostly poet. or in post-Aug. prose).
          1. (α) With acc.: has bene ut adsimules nuptias, Ter. And. 1, 1, 141: clipeumque jubasque Divini adsimulat capitis, Verg. A. 10, 639: Assimulavit anum, Ov. M. 14, 656: odium cum conjuge falsum Phasias assimulat, id. ib. 7, 298: fictos timores, Sil. 7, 136: sermonem humanum, Plin. 8, 30, 44, § 106: me sic adsimulabam, quasi stolidum, Plaut. Ep. 3, 3, 40: se laetum, Ter. Heaut. 5, 1, 15: amicum me, id. Phorm. 1, 2, 78.
          2. (β) With simple inf.: furere adsimulavit, Pac. ap. Cic. Off. 3, 26, 98: amare, Plaut. Cist. 1, 1, 98.
          3. (γ) With acc. and inf.: ego me adsimulem insanire, Plaut. Men. 5, 2, 79: adsimulet se Tuam esse uxorem, id. Mil. 3, 1, 195: Nempe ut adsimulem me amore istius differri, id. ib. 4, 4, 27; id. Poen. 3, 1, 57; id. Truc. 2, 4, 36; 2, 5, 11; 2, 5, 19: venire me adsimulabo, Ter. And. 4, 3, 20; id. Phorm. 5, 6, 53 al.
          4. (δ) With quasi: adsimulato quasi hominem quaesiveris, Plaut. Ep. 2, 2, 11: Ad. Ita nos adsimulabimus. Co. Sed ita adsimulatote, quasi ego sim peregrinus, id. Poen. 3, 2, 23; id. Stich. 1, 2, 27: adsimulabo quasi nunc exeam, Ter. Eun. 3, 2, 8.
            And absol.: Obsecro, Quid si adsimulo, satin est? Ter. Phorm. 1, 4, 33.—
            Note: The much-discussed question, whether adsimilo or adsimulo is the best orthog. (cf. Gron. Diatr. Stat. c. 6, p. 72 sq., and Hand ad h. l.; Quint. 7, 10, 9 Spald.; id. 10, 2, 11 Frotscher; Suet. Tib. 57 Bremi; Tac. G. 9 Passow; id. Agr. 10 Walch; Bessel, Misc. Phil. Crit. 1, 5 al.), is perh. solved in the foll. remarks: Such is the affinity of the sound of ŭ and ĭ in Lat., that when they stand in two successive syllables, separated by the semivowel l, the u is accommodated to the i. Thus, from consŭl arises consĭlĭum; from exsŭl, exsĭlĭum; from famŭl, famĭlĭa; so the terminations ĭlis and ŭlus, not ŭlis and ĭlus (these few, mutĭlus, nubĭlus, pumĭlus, rutĭlus, appear to be founded in the u of the first syllable; but for the heteroclites gracila, sterila, etc., a nom. sing. gracilus, sterilus, etc., is no more needed than for Bacchanal orum, a nom. Bacchanalium, and for carioras, Manil. ap. Varr. L. L. 7, § 28 MSS., a form cariorus, a, um); and so it is also explained, that from the orig. facul and difficul arose faculter, facultas; difficulter, difficultas; not facŭlis, facŭliter, facŭlītas; difficŭlis, difficŭlĭter, difficŭlĭtas; but facilis, faciliter, facilitas; difficilis, difficiliter, difficilitas. This principle, applied to the derivatives of simul, shows the correctness of the orthography simulo, simulatio, simulator, with similis, similitudo, similitas; adsimulo, adsimulatio, adsimulator, with adsimilis; dissimulo, dissimulatio, dissimulator, with dissimilis and dissimilitudo, etc.; cf. Diom. p. 362 P.: Similo non dicimus, sed similis est. Sane dixerunt auctores simulat per u, hoc est ὁμοιάζει. But since the copyists knew that the more rare signif. of making like was not generically connected in the words simulare and adsimulare with the more usual one of imitating, dissembling, they wrote, where the former was required, similo, adsimilo, and gave occasion thereby to the entirely unfounded supposition that the ancients wrote, for the signif. making like, similo, adsimilo; for that of imitating, feigning, simulo, adsimulo Fr.
            Hence, assĭmŭlātus (ads-), a, um, P. a.
    1. A. Made similar, similar, like: totis mortalibus adsimulata Ipsa quoque ex aliis debent constare elementis, Lucr. 2, 980: montibus adsimulata Nubila, id. 6, 189: litterae lituraeque omnes adsimulatae, Cic. Verr. 2, 2, 77: Italia folio querno adsimulata, Plin. 3, 5, 6, § 43: phloginos ochrae Atticae adsimulata, id. 37, 10, 66, § 179: favillae adsimilatus, Vulg. Job, 30, 19: adsimilatus Filio Dei, ib. Heb. 7, 3.
    2. B. Imitated, i. e. feigned, pretended, dissembled: familiaritas adsimulata, Cic. Clu. 13: virtus, id. Cael. 6, 14: adsimulatā castrorum consuetudine, Nep. Eum. 9, 4: alia vera, alia adsimulata, Liv. 26, 19: minus sanguinis ac virium declamationes habent quam orationes, quod in illis vera, in his adsimilata materia est, Quint. 10, 2, 12; 9, 2, 31 al.
      Comp., sup., and adv. not in use.
      * assĭmŭlanter (ads-), adv. (qs. from the P. a. assimulans, which is not found), in a similar manner: dicta haec, Nigid. ap. Non. p. 40, 25.
      3. ‡* assĭpondĭum, ii, n. [as-pondus],
    1. I. the weight of one as, a pound weight, Varr. L. L. 5, § 169 Müll.