appear

verb

Etymology: From Middle English apperen, aperen, borrowed from Old French aparoir (French apparoir), from Latin appāreō (“to appear”), from ad (“to”) + pāreō (“to come forth, to become visible”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂-s- (“watch, see”), s-present of *peh₂- (“protect”).

1. To come or be in sight; to be in view; to become visible.

   “And God[…]said, Let[…]the dry land appear.”

   “There were also particles no one had predicted that just appeared. Five of them […, i]n order of increasing modernity, […] are the neutrino, the pi meson, the antiproton, the quark and the Higgs boson.”

2. To come before the public.

   “A great writer appeared at that time.”

   “Miss Phyllis Morgan, as the hapless heroine dressed in the shabbiest of clothes, appears in the midst of a gay and giddy throng; she apostrophises all and sundry there, including the villain, and has a magnificent scene which always brings down the house, and nightly adds to her histrionic laurels.”

3. To stand in presence of some authority, tribunal, or superior person, to answer a charge, plead a cause, etc.; to present oneself as a party or advocate before a court, or as a person to be tried.

   “We must all appear before the judgment seat.”

   “One ruffian escaped because no prosecutor dared to appear.”

4. To become visible to the apprehension of the mind; to be known as a subject of observation or comprehension, or as a thing proved; to be obvious or manifest.

   “It doth not yet appear what we shall be.”

   “Of their vain contest appeared no end.”

5. To seem; to have a certain semblance; to look.

   “He appeared quite happy with the result.”

   “They disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast.”

6. To bring into view

   “[Angelo] is yet a devil / His filth within being cast, he would appear / A pond as deep as hell.”