different between assimilate vs appropriate

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin assimil?tus, variant of Latin assimul?tus (“made similar, imitated”), perfect passive participle of assimul?, from ad + simul? (“imitate, copy”). Doublet of assemble.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /??s?m.?.le?t/

Verb

assimilate (third-person singular simple present assimilates, present participle assimilating, simple past and past participle assimilated)

1. (transitive) To incorporate nutrients into the body, especially after digestion.

   • Hence also it may be that the parts of animals and vegetables preserve their several forms and assimilate their nourishment

2. (transitive) To incorporate or absorb (knowledge) into the mind.
   • 1850, Charles Merivale, History of the Romans Under the Empire

     His mind had no power to assimilate the lessons.

3. (transitive) To absorb (a person or people) into a community or culture.

4. (transitive, rare, used with "to" or "with") To liken, compare to something similar.
5. (transitive) To bring to a likeness or to conformity; to cause a resemblance between.
   • March 13, 1866, John Bright, The reform bill on the motion for leave to bring in the bill

     to assimilate our law in respect to the law of Scotland

   • Fast falls a fleecy shower; the downy flakes / Assimilate all objects.

   • 1676, Matthew Hale, Contemplations, Moral and Divine

     it doth , by degrees , assimilate the whole inward Man to this living Principle , and conforms the Life unto it

6. (intransitive) To become similar.
7. (intransitive) To be incorporated or absorbed into something.

Synonyms

• (incorporate or absorb knowledge into the mind): process
• (absorb a group of people into a community): integrate

Translations

Noun

assimilate

1. Something that is or has been assimilated.
   • 2012, A. Läuchli, R.L. Bieleski, Inorganic Plant Nutrition, ?ISBN, page 83

     the growing root and ectomycorrhizas both act as assimilate sinks

Italian

Verb

assimilate

1. second-person plural present of assimilare
2. second-person plural imperative of assimilare

Latin

Verb

assimil?te

1. second-person plural present active imperative of assimil?

English

Etymology

From Middle English appropriaten, borrowed from Latin appropriatus, past participle of approprio (“to make one's own”), from ad (“to”) + proprio (“to make one's own”), from proprius (“one's own, private”).

Pronunciation

Adjective

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: ?pr?'pri?t, ?pr?'pri?t, IPA^(key): /??p???.p?i?.?t/, /??p???.p?i?.?t/
• (US) enPR: ?pr?'pri?t, ?pr?'pri?t, IPA^(key): /??p?o?.p?i.?t/, /??p?o?.p?i.?t/

Verb

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??p???.p?i?.e?t/
• (US) enPR: ?pr?'pri?t, IPA^(key): /??p?o?.p?i.e?t/

Adjective

appropriate (comparative more appropriate, superlative most appropriate)

1. Suitable or fit; proper.
   • 1798-1801, Beilby Porteus, Lecture XI delivered in the Parish Church of St. James, Westminster

     in its strict and appropriate meaning

   • 1710, Edward Stillingfleet, Several Conferences Between a Romish Priest, a Fanatick Chaplain, and a Divine of the Church of England Concerning the Idolatry of the Church of Rome

     appropriate acts of divine worship
2. Suitable to the social situation or to social respect or social discreetness; socially correct; socially discreet; well-mannered; proper.
3. (obsolete) Set apart for a particular use or person; reserved.

Synonyms

• (suited for): apt, felicitous, fitting, suitable; see also Thesaurus:suitable

Antonyms

• (all senses): inappropriate

Derived terms

• appropriateness

Related terms

• proper
• property

Translations

Verb

appropriate (third-person singular simple present appropriates, present participle appropriating, simple past and past participle appropriated)

1. (transitive, archaic) To make suitable to; to suit.
   • 1790, Helen Maria Williams, Julia, Routledge 2016, p. 67:

     Under the towers were a number of gloomy subterraneous apartments with vaulted roofs, the use of which imagination was left to guess, and could only appropriate to punishment and horror.

   • 1802, William Paley, Natural Theology or Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity

     Were we to take a portion of the skin, and contemplate its exquisite sensibility, so finely appropriated […] we should have no occasion to draw our argument, for the twentieth time, from the structure of the eye or the ear.

2. (transitive) To take to oneself; to claim or use, especially as by an exclusive right.
3. (transitive) To set apart for, or assign to, a particular person or use, especially in exclusion of all others; with to or for.
   • 2012, The Washington Post, David Nakamura and Tom Hamburger, "Put armed police in every school, NRA urges"

     “I call on Congress today to act immediately to appropriate whatever is necessary to put armed police officers in every single school in this nation,” LaPierre said.

4. (transitive, Britain, ecclesiastical, law) To annex (for example a benefice, to a spiritual corporation, as its property).

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Blackstone to this entry?)

Synonyms

• (to take to oneself): help oneself, impropriate; see also Thesaurus:take or Thesaurus:steal
• (to set apart for): allocate, earmark; see also Thesaurus:set apart

Translations

Further reading

• appropriate at OneLook Dictionary Search
• appropriate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Italian

Adjective

appropriate f pl

1. feminine plural of appropriato