Dissembles

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To deliberately mislead others by hiding real thoughts or feelings while appearing in another guise
2. To hide one's genuine emotions or motives by pretending to be something else
3. To cover up actual thoughts or feelings through false appearances or behavior

Etymology: "Dissembles" is the third-person singular form of "dissemble," so the story belongs to the verb itself. Its root is Latin "dissimulare," meaning to conceal or pretend, which passed into Old French as "dessambler" and "dissembler." Along the way, French speakers reshaped the Latin-derived form after "sembler," meaning "to seem," and "semblance," meaning "appearance." That reshaping quietly built the idea of seeming into the word, so a dissembler is someone who puts on a semblance. English acquired the verb in the early 15th century, in Middle English as "dissemblen" and "dissimblen." It replaced the native Old English "mīþan," which meant to conceal or hide, so English once had its own word for this idea before borrowing a more polished one. Today it sits alongside its doublets "dissimulate" and "dissimule," all three descended from the same Latin verb but arriving by different routes.

Synonyms: conceals, disguises, deceives, masks, camouflages

Antonyms: reveals, discloses, exposes, unveils, confesses