Italian

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Etymology

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From Vulgar Latin *exsēmāre, from Latin sēmis (a half). Compare Sicilian scimuniri and scimunitu.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): */ʃeˈma.re/
  • Rhymes: -are
  • Hyphenation: sce‧mà‧re

Verb

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scemàre (first-person singular present scémo, first-person singular past historic scemài, past participle scemàto, auxiliary (transitive) avére or (intransitive) èssere)

  1. (transitive) to decrease, to reduce, to diminish
  2. (transitive, regional) to draw off a bit of wine from (a barrel, flask, etc.)
  3. (intransitive) to decrease, to diminish, to wane, to subside [with di ‘in’] [auxiliary essere]
    Synonyms: diminuire, ridurre; see also Thesaurus:indebolire
    scemare di pesoto diminish in weight
    • 2013, F. Scott Fitzgerald, translated by Ferruccio Russo, Il Grande Gatsby [The Great Gatsby], Edizioni Scientifiche e Artistiche, page 89:
      La faccenda assunse velocemente le dimensioni di uno scandalo, poi scemò.
      The thing approached the proportions of a scandal, then died away.
      (literally, “The matter quickly assumed the dimensions of a scandal, then diminished.”)

Conjugation

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Derived terms

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Anagrams

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