When reading and writing, I regularly stop to look up and write down the definitions of words, even if I think I know them. I’m interested in learning about their origin and I feel it’s very important to fully comprehend their meaning/s in order to use them correctly. For example, I recently searched for forum, garrulous, heed, peripatetic, perseverate, saunter and the difference between compassion and empathy.
Like with idioms and quotes, I’ll be posting definitions of words and here’s one which is very apt for this blog.
assimilate |əˈsɪmɪleɪt|
verb [with obj.]
- take in and understand fully (information or ideas): Marie tried to assimilate the week’s events.
- absorb and integrate (people, ideas, or culture) into a wider society or culture: pop trends are assimilated into the mainstream with alarming speed.
- (of the body or any biological system) absorb and digest (food or nutrients). the sugars in the fruit are readily assimilated by the body.
- regard as similar; liken: philosophers had assimilated thought to perception.
- [no obj.] become similar: the Churches assimilated to a certain cultural norm.
- Phonetics make (a sound) more like another in the same or next word. the ‘v’ in ‘fivepence’ may be assimilated to a voiceless ‘f’ (because of the ‘p’).
ORIGIN
late Middle English: from Latin assimilat– ‘absorbed, incorporated’, from the verb assimilare, from ad- ‘to’ + similis ‘like’.
My Excerpts 