dissembler

English

Etymology

A modification of earlier dissimuler (from Middle English dissimulour) after resemble and semblance; equivalent to dissemble +‎ -er.

Noun

dissembler (plural dissemblers)

1. Someone who dissembles.

   Synonyms: hypocrite, phony, pretender; see also Thesaurus:deceiver

   • c. 1635 (date written), Henry Wotton, “Of Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex; and George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham: Some Observations by Way of Parallel in the Time of Their Estates of Favour”, in Reliquiæ Wottonianæ. Or, A Collection of Lives, Letters, Poems; […], London: […] Thomas Maxey, for R[ichard] Marriot, G[abriel] Bedel, and T[imothy] Garthwait, published 1651, →OCLC, page 23:

     [T]he Earl vvas the vvorſe Philoſopher, being a great Reſenter and a vveak Diſſembler of the leaſt diſgrace: […]

   • 2021 October 26, Peter Baker, “The Case Against Winston Churchill”, in The New York Times‎^[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC:

     [Winston] Churchill, in this telling, was not just a racist but a hypocrite, a dissembler, a narcissist, an opportunist, an imperialist, a drunk, a strategic bungler, a tax dodger, a neglectful father, a credit-hogging author, a terrible judge of character and, most of all, a masterful mythmaker.

     (Can we archive this URL?)

Translations

someone who dissembles

• Bulgarian: лицемер (bg) (licemer)
• German: Gleisner (de) m, Heuchler (de) m
• Italian: dissimulatore (it) m
• Latin: dissimulātor m
• Russian: лицеме́р (ru) m (licemér), обма́нщик (ru) m (obmánščik), притво́рщик (ru) m (pritvórščik)

French

Etymology

From dis- +‎ sembler.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /di.sɑ̃.ble/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

dissembler

1. (transitive, rare) to differ, to be unlike

Conjugation

Conjugation of dissembler (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	dissembler
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	dissemblant /di.sɑ̃.blɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		dissemblé /di.sɑ̃.ble/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	dissemble /di.sɑ̃bl/	dissembles /di.sɑ̃bl/	dissemble /di.sɑ̃bl/	dissemblons /di.sɑ̃.blɔ̃/	dissemblez /di.sɑ̃.ble/	dissemblent /di.sɑ̃bl/
	imperfect	dissemblais /di.sɑ̃.blɛ/	dissemblais /di.sɑ̃.blɛ/	dissemblait /di.sɑ̃.blɛ/	dissemblions /di.sɑ̃.bli.jɔ̃/	dissembliez /di.sɑ̃.bli.je/	dissemblaient /di.sɑ̃.blɛ/
	past historic2	dissemblai /di.sɑ̃.ble/	dissemblas /di.sɑ̃.bla/	dissembla /di.sɑ̃.bla/	dissemblâmes /di.sɑ̃.blam/	dissemblâtes /di.sɑ̃.blat/	dissemblèrent /di.sɑ̃.blɛʁ/
	future	dissemblerai /di.sɑ̃.blə.ʁe/	dissembleras /di.sɑ̃.blə.ʁa/	dissemblera /di.sɑ̃.blə.ʁa/	dissemblerons /di.sɑ̃.blə.ʁɔ̃/	dissemblerez /di.sɑ̃.blə.ʁe/	dissembleront /di.sɑ̃.blə.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	dissemblerais /di.sɑ̃.blə.ʁɛ/	dissemblerais /di.sɑ̃.blə.ʁɛ/	dissemblerait /di.sɑ̃.blə.ʁɛ/	dissemblerions /di.sɑ̃.blə.ʁjɔ̃/	dissembleriez /di.sɑ̃.blə.ʁje/	dissembleraient /di.sɑ̃.blə.ʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	dissemble /di.sɑ̃bl/	dissembles /di.sɑ̃bl/	dissemble /di.sɑ̃bl/	dissemblions /di.sɑ̃.bli.jɔ̃/	dissembliez /di.sɑ̃.bli.je/	dissemblent /di.sɑ̃bl/
	imperfect2	dissemblasse /di.sɑ̃.blas/	dissemblasses /di.sɑ̃.blas/	dissemblât /di.sɑ̃.bla/	dissemblassions /di.sɑ̃.bla.sjɔ̃/	dissemblassiez /di.sɑ̃.bla.sje/	dissemblassent /di.sɑ̃.blas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	dissemble /di.sɑ̃bl/	—	dissemblons /di.sɑ̃.blɔ̃/	dissemblez /di.sɑ̃.ble/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Further reading

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