dissimilate

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   rare: to make two or more things unlike, or to become less similar

   Over several generations, the neighboring traditions began to dissimilate rather than converge.

2. 2
   verb

   in linguistics, to change a speech sound so that it becomes less like another nearby sound

   Speakers may dissimilate one of two neighboring consonants to make the sequence easier to pronounce.

First attested in 1841 and borrowed from Medieval Latin dissimilatus, the participle of dissimilo, a remodeled form related to Classical Latin dissimulo and similis ("like, similar"). Its form and contrastive meaning were probably influenced by assimilate; in linguistics it names the opposite sound process.

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