deform

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Middle English deformen, also difformen,^[2][3] borrowed from Middle French deformer and directly borrowed from Latin dēfōrmō (“to disfigure, spoil”),^[4][2][5] from dē- and either fōrmō (“to shape”) or forma (“form, shape”).^[4][2][3] The form in “dif-” is from difformer and Medieval Latin difformō (“to reshape for the worse, warp”), recorded from the 9th century, an alteration of the classical verb with a change of prefix.^[4] The form Old French desformer is recorded from the 13th century,^[4][2] and in Anglo-Norman from about 1230.^[6] Barnhart calls the Old French word a blend of the Latin verb with a variant, *disfōrmō,^[7][8] and Collins and Dictionary.com give the Latin as the only source.^[9][10] The adjective is inherited from Middle English defourme,^[5] borrowed from Middle French deforme and directly borrowed from Latin dēfōrmis (“misshapen, ugly”).^[4][11][5] A noun for moral weakness, recorded before 1425, is from the same Latin adjective used as a noun,^[4] and the noun opposed to reform is formed from the verb.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

To alter the shape of something, especially a part of the body, for the worse: before 1382, in the early version of the Wycliffite Bible.^[4] The adjective is recorded in the same text, in Genesis, as defourme and leene.^[4][12] Older dictionaries date the verb later: Barnhart and Etymonline to about 1400,^[7][2] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged to the 15th century.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The verb first meant a change for the worse, of the body and then of appearance in general, as in "to make ugly, disfigure" (about 1400);^[4][7] from about 1425 it could apply also to something immaterial or to moral quality.^[4] Johnson (1755) defined it as to disfigure and to dishonour.^[13] For a time the verb also had the sense of disarranging troops, from Pope's Odyssey (1725) to 1785,^[4] and the Wycliffite Bible once uses it for giving shape to something or depicting it,^[4] a meaning of the Latin verb.^[4] The neutral sense of changing the shape of a body or material, especially by applying stress, belongs chiefly to geology, physics and materials science: it is first recorded in J. D. Forbes's book on the Alps (1843), with the intransitive use from 1872,^[4] although the SOED has the intransitive from the mid-18th century, rare before the mid-20th.^[11] The adjective, used by Spenser and by Milton ("Sight so deform"),^[13][11] is now archaic.^[5][11] In Scots deform was also a noun for a deformed person, as in Tennant's Anster (1812).^[12]

Timeline

• before 1382 – verb, to alter the shape for the worse; adjective, misshapen, ugly.^[4]
• c. 1400 – verb, to make ugly, disfigure.^[4][7][2]
• before 1425 – noun, moral weakness or corruption.^[4]
• c. 1425 – verb, to alter something immaterial for the worse.^[4]
• 1600 – noun, a change for the worse, opposed to reform.^[4]
• 1725 – verb, to throw troops into disorder (obsolete by 1785).^[4]
• 1843 – verb, to change the shape of a body or material.^[4]
• 1872 – verb, intransitive, to undergo a change of shape.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To spoil or distort the form of something: Years of poor shoes had deformed his toes.^[9][5][4]
2. To spoil the looks of; to disfigure.^[9][5][4]
3. To harm the excellence or moral quality of something.^[5][4][11]
4. (physics, geology) To change the shape of a body or material, especially by stress.^[9][4][11]
5. (physics, geology) Of a body or material, to undergo such a change: The bracket deforms under heavy loads.^[9][4][11]

Adjective

1. (archaic) Misshapen; hideous.^[5][11][13]

Noun

1. An alteration for the worse of something immaterial, usually contrasted with reform.^[4]

Word family

• deformability
• deformable
• deformative
• deformer
• deformed
• undeformable

Related words

• deformation
• deformity
• form
• difform

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
7. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
13. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.