seem: [12] Originally, seem meant ‘be suitable’ (a meaning preserved in the derived seemly [13]). It was borrowed from the Old Norse verb soema ‘conform to, honour’. This was derived from the adjective soemr ‘fitting’, a descendant of the prehistoric base *sōm- (to which English same is distantly related). The sense ‘appear to be’ emerged in the early 13th century. => same, seemly, soft[seem etymology, seem origin, 英语词源]