different between verisimilitude vs similitude

English

Etymology

From Middle French vérisimilitude, from Latin v?r?similit?d? (“likeness to truth”), more correctly written separately as v?r? similit?d?; from v?r?, genitive singular of v?rus (“true, real”), + similit?d? (“likeness, resemblance”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /v???s??m?l?tju?d/

Noun

verisimilitude (countable and uncountable, plural verisimilitudes)

1. The property of seeming true, of resembling reality; resemblance to reality, realism.
2. A statement which merely appears to be true.
3. (fiction) Faithfulness to its own rules; internal cohesion.

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:verisimilitude.

Related terms

• verisimilitudinous
• verisimilar
• verisimilarity
• truthiness

Translations

See also

• probability

Further reading

• verisimilitude in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• verisimilitude in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

French

Etymology

From Latin v?r?similit?d? (“likeness to truth”), more correctly written separately as v?r? similit?d?; from v?r?, genitive singular of v?rus (“true, real”), + similis (“like, resembling, similar”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /v?.?i.si.mi.li.tyd/

Noun

verisimilitude f (plural verisimilitudes)

1. verisimilitude

English

Etymology

From Old French

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /s??m?l?tju?d/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /s??m?l?tu?d/

Noun

similitude (countable and uncountable, plural similitudes)

1. (uncountable) Similarity or resemblance to something else.
   • 1997: Chris Horrocks, Introducing Foucault, page 67, The Renaissance Episteme (Totem Books, Icon Books; ?ISBN

     Renaissance man thought in terms of similitudes: the theatre of life, the mirror of nature. […]
     Aemulation was similitude within distance: the sky resembled a face because it had “eyes” — the sun and moon.

2. (countable) A way in which two people or things share similitude.
   • 1997: Chris Horrocks, Introducing Foucault, page 67, The Renaissance Episteme (Totem Books, Icon Books; ?ISBN

     Renaissance man thought in terms of 'similitudes': the theatre of life, the mirror of nature. […]
     Aemulation was similitude within distance: the sky resembled a face because it had “eyes” — the sun and moon.

3. (countable) Someone or something that closely resembles another; a duplicate or twin.
   • 1852, Wilkie Collins, Nine O'Clock!

     If I was certain of anything in the world, I was certain that I had seen my brother in the study — nay, more, had touched him, — and equally certain that I had seen his double — his exact similitude, in the garden.

4. A parable or allegory.
   • 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Matthew XIII:

     And he spake many thynges to them in similitudes, sayinge: Beholde, the sower wentt forth to sowe, And as he sowed, some fell by the wayes side [...].

Derived terms

• antisimilitude

Translations

French

Etymology

From Latin similit?dinem, accusative singular of similit?d? (“likeness, similitude”); from similis.

Noun

similitude f (plural similitudes)

1. similitude

Further reading

• “similitude” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).