Seem
Middle English (also in the sense ‘suit, befit, be appropriate’): from Old Norse sœma ‘to honour’, from sœmr ‘fitting’.
wiktionary
From Middle English semen(“to seem, befit, be becoming”), from Old Norse sœma(“to conform to, beseem, befit”), from Proto-Germanic *sōmijaną(“to unite, fit”), from Proto-Indo-European *sem-(“one; whole”). Cognate with Scots seme(“to be fitting; beseem”), Danish sømme(“to beseem”), Old Swedish søma, Faroese søma(“to be proper”). Related also to Old Norse sómi(“honour”) ( > archaic Danish somme(“decent comportment”)), Old Norse sœmr(“fitting, seemly”), Old English sēman(“to reconcile, bring an agreement”), Old English sōm(“agreement”).
etymonline
seem (v.)
late 12c., "to be fitting, be appropriate, be suitable;" c. 1200, "to appear to be, have or present the appearance of being;" from Old Norse soema "to honor; to put up with; to conform to (the world, etc.)," verb derived from adjective soemr "fitting," from Proto-Germanic *somiz (source also of Old English som "agreement, reconciliation," seman "to conciliate," source of Middle English semen "to settle a dispute," literally "to make one;" Old Danish söme "to be proper or seemly"), from PIE *somi-, suffixed form of root *sem- (1) "one; as one, together with."
The sense of "be fitting, be appropriate" in English is the etymological one, but it is obsolete except in derived seemly, unseemly. Related: Seemed; seeming.
