similitude

From Old French similitude, from Latin similitūdō. By surface analysis, similar +‎ -itude.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /sɪˈmɪlɪtjuːd/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /sɪˈmɪlɪtuːd/

similitude (countable and uncountable, plural similitudes)

1. (uncountable) Similarity or resemblance to something else.
   • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XX, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 150:

     So am I tossed on the ebbing tide of life—now in sunshine, now in shade—seemingly free, yet, in reality, fettered by the strong, though slight chain of circumstance. For a small sum, any passenger may enter that boat and direct its course; and here again is similitude. I am at the beck of others.

   • 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.
   • 1653, John Bulwer, “Scene XXIIII. Cruell and Fantasticall Inventions of Men Practised upon Their Bodies in a Supposed Way of Bravery, and Wicked Practices both of Men and Devils to Alter and Deforme the Humane Fabricke”, in Anthropometamorphosis: Man Transform’d; or, The Artificial Changling […], 2nd edition, London: […] William Hunt, →OCLC, page 521:

     But others declare that no Creature can be made or tranſmuted into a better or vvorſe, or transformed into another ſpecies or ſimilitude, by man, or devill. […] Martinus [i.e., Martin] Delrio the Jeſuit accounts this degeneration of Man into a Beaſt to be an illuſion, deceptive and repugnant to Nature; for, the ſoule of man cannot informe a beaſts body, […]

   • 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, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Matthew:

     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 [...].

5. (countable, geometry) A similarity: a transformation of Euclidean space that preserves angles and the ratios of distances.

• dissimilitude

From Latin similitūdinem (“likeness, similitude”); from similis.

similitude f (plural similitudes)

1. similitude

• “similitude”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012