Etymologically
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form

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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
  • 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