Etymologically
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former

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /ˈfɔː.mə/, US /ˈfɔːr.mɚ/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English former, formed from forme (“first”) with the comparative suffix -er,[2][3][4] probably on the model of formest (“foremost”).[2][3] Middle English forme continues Old English forma (“first”),[3][5] from Proto-Germanic *fruma-,[3] from Proto-Indo-European *pre-mo-, a superlative form of *per- (“forward”).[3][6] Barnhart and Etymonline point out the oddity of a comparative built on an old superlative, the m of forma being a superlative suffix as old as Indo-European.[2][3] It is related to foremost.[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Earlier in time: mid-12th century according to Etymonline;[3] Barnhart notes a possible use about 1160 in the Hatton Gospels, a Middle English innovation in an Old English text, but otherwise dates the word to before 1375.[2]

Semantic evolution

Hoad records the obsolete senses “first, primeval” in the 13th century and “more forward” in the 14th.[5] “The first of two”, as in the former and the latter, is from the 1580s,[3][5] and is found with latter from 1597.[7] Formerly appears in Spenser's Faerie Queene (1596).[2] It first meant “just now” or “beforehand”, and since the 16th century it has meant “in former days”.[5]

Timeline

  • mid-12th century – earlier in time.[3]
  • 13th century – first, primeval (obsolete).[5]
  • 1580s – the first of two.[3]
  • 1596 – formerly (Spenser).[2]
  • 1597 – the former with the latter.[7]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Earlier in time; belonging to the past.
  2. Having been in the past: a former president.
  3. Coming before in place or order; foregoing.
  4. Being the first of two mentioned.

Noun

  1. (the former) The first of two things mentioned.

Word family

  • formerly

Usage notes

The American Heritage Dictionary notes that grammarians insist on the former and the latter only for the first and second of two things, though other uses are easy to find.[8] A separate noun former, “one who forms, a maker”, was formed from form in the mid-14th century,[3][9] and is also a pupil in a school form, as in sixth-former.[8]

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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., 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. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  7. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
  8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  9. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press