Word Confusion: Disassemble versus Dissemble

Posted December 22, 2020 by kddidit in Author Resources, Self-Editing, Word Confusions, Writing

Revised as of
8 Nov 2022

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This word confusion disassemble vs dissemble caught my eye what with Christmas coming up.

Disassemble made me think of all those parents trying to assemble the toys for their kids before putting the gifts under the tree. And how many times those toys have to be disassembled as those parents try to work their way through lousy instructions, lol. Of course, on Christmas Day, those kids are usually doing a good job of disassembling the same toys *more laughter*.

Dissemble also relates to Christmas with those same parents faking out that Santa lives. Of course, politicians are always dissembling *sigh*.

Word Confusions . . .

. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.

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Disassemble	Dissemble
Handyman Project to Disassemble Hot Water Heater is Tomwsulcer‘s own work under the CC0 license, via Wikimedia Commons.	DC People and Places, 28 May 2016, by Ted Eytan is under the CC BY-SA 2.0 license, via Flickr. — Politicians constantly dissemble.
Part of Grammar:
Verb, intransitive & transitive Third person present verb: disassembles Past tense or past participle: disassembled Present participle: disassembling	Verb, intransitive & transitive Third person present verb: dissembles Past tense or past participle: dissembled Present participle: dissembling
Verb, intransitive: To come apart Disperse Scatter Verb, transitive: Take (something) apart Dismantle [Computing] Translate (a program) from machine code into a higher-level programming language	Verb, intransitive: Conceal one’s true motives, thoughts, feelings, or beliefs by some pretense Speak or act hypocritically Verb, transitive: Disguise or conceal a feeling or intention to give a false or misleading appearance to Conceal the truth or real nature of Feign [Obsolete] To let pass unnoticed Ignore
Examples:
Verb, intransitive: These shelves disassemble quickly for easy moving. The frame disassembles into sections. The crowd began to disassemble. Verb, transitive: The piston can be disassembled for transport. It is permissible for a lawful user to disassemble a computer program to determine its interfaces. He dissembled the watch to dry it out. They had to disassemble the bike three times before they finally got it right in time for Christmas.	Verb, intransitive: She was an honest, sincere person with no need to dissemble. It is time to stop dissembling, delaying, and deceiving. More interestingly, ravens seem to know when other ravens are checking them out and are able to dissemble and deceive. Verb, transitive: She smiled, dissembling her true emotion. He tried to dissemble his incompetence in business. She dissembled innocence quite poorly. Out of self-interest, rich or eminent people who would curry popular favor to gain political office will dissemble their selfishness and pride. Society dissembles in the face of politicians’ lies.
Derivatives:
Noun: disassembler, disassembling, disassembly	Adjective: dissembling, undissembled, undissembling Adverb: dissemblingly Noun: dissemblance, dissembler, dissembling
History of the Word:
It was first recorded in 1605–15, as dis- + assemble.	Late Middle English alteration (suggested by semblance) of the obsolete dissimule, via the Old French from the Latin dissimulare meaning disguise, conceal.

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C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!

Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.

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