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The sense of "be fitting, be appropriate" in English is the etymological one, but it is obsolete except in derived seemly, unseemly.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.