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.
实用例句
1. Victorian houses can seem cold with their lofty ceilings and rambling rooms.
维多利亚式房屋屋顶高耸，房间布局凌乱，因此可能会显得较为阴冷。
来自柯林斯例句
2. I seem to fritter my time away at coffee mornings.
我似乎把时间全都浪费在咖啡早茶会上了。
来自柯林斯例句
3. He rubbed and rubbed but couldn't seem to get clean.
他擦了又擦，可就是擦不干净。
来自柯林斯例句
4. The idea of spending two weeks with him may seem heavenly.
和他一起度过两周的想法听起来似乎十分美好。
来自柯林斯例句
5. T-shirts now seem almost de rigueur in the West End.