Other forms: deemed, deeming, deems
To deem is to formally judge or consider something to be so. Deemed necessary, deemed to have accepted, deem it appropriate.
It is legal and administrative language, and its special power is creating a fiction: a deeming provision says something shall be treated as true whether it is or not — deemed to have been served, deemed a resident. Outside that it is a formal alternative to consider. Note that deem, doom and deemster all come from the same Old English word for judging.
1verbdeemTo formally judge or consider something to be so.
“The building was deemed unsafe and closed immediately.”
deem is a judging.
Also accepted in games: regard
Old English deman means to judge, from dom, a judgement. Doom, deemster and the -dom in kingdom come from the same judging.
Proto-Indo-European
*dʰeh₁- — to set, put
Proto-Germanic
*dōmijaną — to judge, think
Proto-West Germanic
*dōmijan
Old English
dēman — to decide, decree, deem
Middle English
demen — to judge; to criticize, condemn; to impose a penalty on, sentence; to direct, order; to believe, think, deem
English, today
deem
From Middle English demen (“to judge; to criticize, condemn; to impose a penalty on, sentence; to direct, order; to believe, think, deem”), from Old English dēman (“to decide, decree, deem”), from Proto-West Germanic dōmijan, from Proto-Germanic dōmijaną (“to judge, think”), from Proto-Indo-European dʰeh₁- (“to set, put”). The word is cognate with Danish and Norwegian Bokmål dømme (“to judge”), Dutch doemen (“to condemn, foredoom”), frr dema (“to judge, recognise”), Norwegian Nynorsk døma (“to judge”), Swedish döma (“to judge, sentence, condemn”), Finnish tuomita (“to judge”). It is also related to doom.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA