form

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /fɔːm/, US /fɔːrm/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English furme (later forme), borrowed from Old French forme (“shape, appearance; manner”) and directly borrowed from Latin fōrma (“form, mould, shape; beauty”),^[2][3][4] a word of uncertain origin.^[2][3][5] Klein and Barnhart think it may come from Greek μορφή (morphḗ, “form, shape”) by way of Etruscan,^[6][3][2] and Klein compares the same change in Latin formīca (“ant”) beside Greek μύρμηξ (múrmēx), while rejecting a link with ferīre (“to strike”).^[6] The verb is from Old French fourmer and Latin fōrmāre.^[3][2] It is related to formal, formula, conform, deform, inform, perform, reform and uniform.^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Probably before 1200, in the Ancrene Riwle,^[3] and about 1200 according to Etymonline, “semblance, image, likeness”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From about 1300 form meant the shape of something or someone's body, and also the correct way of doing something, established procedure.^[2] In law it was the terms of an agreement from about 1300,^[2][8] and a legal document from the mid-14th century.^[2] A mould is a form from the mid-14th century,^[2] and in medieval theology and philosophy the word meant the essence that makes a thing what it is.^[2][5] The hare's form, its lair, is from the 13th century, and a long bench without a back from the 14th.^[5] A class at school is a form from the 1550s,^[2] or the 16th century.^[5] “Mere ceremony” is from the 1610s, and a document with blanks to fill in from 1855.^[2] The verb, “to give shape to, create”, is from about 1300,^[2][3] and “to take shape” from 1722.^[2] Formation is recorded before 1398, formative in Caxton (1490) and formless in Spenser (1591).^[3]

Timeline

• before 1200 – likeness, shape (Ancrene Riwle).^[3]
• c. 1300 – shape; procedure; verb, to shape.^[2]
• 13th century – a hare's lair.^[5]
• 14th century – a bench.^[5]
• before 1398 – formation.^[3]
• 1550s – a class at school.^[2]
• 1591 – formless (Spenser).^[3]
• 1610s – mere ceremony.^[2]
• 1722 – verb, to take shape.^[2]
• 1855 – a document to fill in.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The shape and structure of something.
2. The body or outward appearance of a person; the figure.
3. A kind or variety: a form of government.
4. Procedure set by rule or custom; etiquette.
5. A document with blanks to be filled in.
6. (chiefly British) A class at school.
7. (British) A long bench without a back.
8. The lair of a hare.
9. (philosophy) The essence of a thing, as distinct from its matter.

Verb

1. To give shape to; to make or create.
2. To develop in the mind: form an opinion.
3. To make up; to constitute.
4. To come into being; to take shape.

Word family

• formability
• formable
• formably
• deform
• misform
• habit-forming

Related words

• inform
• formal
• formula
• formulaic
• formulate
• formulation
• format
• formation
• conform
• perform
• reform
• uniform

Usage notes

The American Heritage Dictionary contrasts form, the outline and structure of a thing as opposed to its substance, with figure, shape, configuration, contour and profile.^[9]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin