semelduẽ

Old Galician-Portuguese

Alternative forms

• simildue, symildue, semeldon, semeldue, semeldũe, semeldõẽ, semildue, semeldá (Galicia)
• simildon, semildooen, symildom, simildoom, semildom, semeldom (Portugal)

Etymology

Inherited from Latin similitūdinem (“similarity, resemblance”). The forms with /simil-/ probably reflect Latin influence.

Noun

semelduẽ f (plural semelduẽs)

1. likeness, similarity, resemblance, similitude
   • 1362, Andrés Martínez Salazar, editor, Documentos gallegos de los siglos XIII a XVI, page 116:

     mando mj̃a alma a Deus padre que a ffezo et a criou aa sua ymagen et asua semeldũe.

     I send my soul to God the Father, who made it and created it in His image and likeness

2. aspect, look
   • 14th or 15th century CE, anonymous, Miragres de Santiago, 125

     ⁊ ante a semelduẽ das carãtonas, que erã moy feas, espantarõse os caualos

     and faced with [lit. 'before'] the sight of the masks, which were rather hideous, the horses were terrified

References

• Joan Coromines, José A[ntonio] Pascual (1983) “semejar”, in Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico [Critical Castilian and Hispanic Etymological Dictionary] (in Spanish), volume V (Ri–X), Madrid: Gredos, →ISBN, page 198
• Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, Ana Isabel Boullón Agrelo (2006–2022) “semeldon”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Xavier Varela Barreiro, Xavier Gómez Guinovart (2006–2018) “semelduẽ”, in Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega