deformation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English deformacioun, also difformacioun,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Latin dēfōrmātiō (“disfigurement; also design, representation”) and its medieval variant difformātiō (“alteration in form”), recorded before 1316.^[5][2] The medieval form was altered after the Latin prefix dif-.^[5] Etymonline, the Shorter Oxford and Merriam-Webster also give a French source, borrowed from Middle French déformation;^[3][6][4][7] the OED only compares the French word, recorded from the 14th century, and deformazione, recorded before 1330.^[5] The Latin noun is formed from dēfōrmō (“to put out of shape, disfigure”),^[3][5][7] from dē- and fōrmō (“to shape, fashion”), from fōrma (“form, shape”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A transformation: about 1450, in Lydgate's Secrees, which speaks of the "Difformacyouns of Circes".^[2][5] Etymonline gives the mid-15th century for "transformation, act of changing the form of".^[3] The sense is now obsolete.^[5]

Semantic evolution

From 1551, in John Bale, it meant a change of something for the worse, especially of something immaterial, often set against reformation;^[5][4] Weekley quotes Nicholas Bacon's "The great word of reformation, or rather deformation, in the worship of God".^[8] Disfigurement of a person's or thing's appearance followed in 1581,^[5] and Etymonline dates the sense "deformity, disfigurement" to the 1540s.^[3] Johnson (1755) defined it as "a defacing; a disfiguring".^[9] From 1623 it also meant an abnormal structure of a body part, close to deformity and malformation.^[5] In 1844 it entered the language of physics and geology, for the change of shape of a body under stress,^[5] including the folding and faulting of rocks.^[4] Since 1889 it has also named an altered form of a word used to avoid profanity, such as darn for damn.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1450 – a transformation (obsolete).^[2][5]
• 1551 – a change for the worse, especially of something immaterial.^[5]
• 1581 – disfigurement, defacement.^[5]
• 1623 – an abnormal structure of a body part.^[5]
• 1844 – in physics and geology, distortion under stress.^[5]
• 1889 – an altered form of a word, to avoid profanity.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of deforming, or the state of being deformed; distortion.^[10][4]
2. A change in form, especially for the worse: the slow deformation of the party's founding ideals.^[10][4][5]
3. In physics and materials science, a change in the shape or dimensions of a body caused by stress.^[10][5]
4. In geology, the folding, faulting or compression of rocks by stresses in the Earth's crust.^[4][5]
5. A malformation of a part of the body.^[5]
6. An altered form of a word used to avoid profanity.^[5]
7. (obsolete) A transformation.^[5][2]

Word family

• deformational

Related words

• deform
• deformity
• form
• reformation
• malformation

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins