seem: [12] Originally, seem meant ‘be suitable’ (a meaning preserved in the derived seemly [13]). It was borrowed from the Old Norse verb soema ‘conform to, honour’. This was derived from the adjective soemr ‘fitting’, a descendant of the prehistoric base *sōm- (to which English same is distantly related). The sense ‘appear to be’ emerged in the early 13th century. => same, seemly, soft
seem (v.)
c. 1200, "to appear to be;" c. 1300, "to be fitting, be appropriate, be suitable," though the more recent sense in English is the etymological one; from Old Norse soema "to honor; to put up with; to conform to (the world, etc.)," verb derived from adjective soemr "fitting," from Proto-Germanic *somi- (cognates: Old English som "agreement, reconciliation," seman "to conciliate," source of Middle English semen "to settle a dispute," literally "to make one;" Old Danish some "to be proper or seemly"), from PIE *som-i-, from root *sem- "one, as one" (see same). Related: Seemed; seeming.
雙語例句
1. Victorian houses can seem cold with their lofty ceilings and rambling rooms.
維多利亞式房屋屋頂高聳，房間布局凌亂，因此可能會顯得較為陰冷。
來自柯林斯例句
2. I seem to fritter my time away at coffee mornings.
我似乎把時間全都浪費在咖啡早茶會上了。
來自柯林斯例句
3. He rubbed and rubbed but couldn't seem to get clean.
他擦了又擦，可就是擦不干凈。
來自柯林斯例句
4. The idea of spending two weeks with him may seem heavenly.
和他一起度過兩周的想法聽起來似乎十分美好。
來自柯林斯例句
5. T-shirts now seem almost de rigueur in the West End.