reformer

Etymology

It is formed from English reform + -er,^{[1][2][3][4][5]} perhaps partly after Latin refōrmātor.^[1] The OED compares Anglo-Norman reformer (“champion of a cause, one who sets wrongs right”), recorded before 1412, and Middle French reformeur, refourmeur, one who restores something.^[1] Reform is from Old French reformer and directly Latin refōrmō (“to form again, change”), from re- (“again”) and fōrmō (“to shape”), from fōrma (“form”).^[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

One who corrects or improves another; a mediator or negotiator: about 1454, in R. Pecock's Folewer to Donet.^[1][4][2] The 1989 edition of the OED had dated the word to 1526, a date Merriam-Webster's Collegiate also gives;^[7][8] Dictionary.com gives 1520–30.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The first sense, a person who reforms someone else's conduct, is now rare.^[1] By about 1500 a reformer was a person who brought about reform in a practice or state of affairs.^[1] From 1561 the word was applied to the leaders and supporters of the Protestant Reformation, often with a capital letter;^[1][3][9] Johnson (1755) gave this as his second sense, quoting Bacon's "our first reformers".^[10] From 1648 it meant an advocate of political or parliamentary reform.^[1][3] From 1798, chiefly in the United States, it was also used for members of reformed branches of Protestant churches, especially the Campbellite Baptists.^[1] An adherent of Reform Judaism has been called a Reformer since 1823.^[1] In Canadian history the word names the 19th-century campaigners for responsible government in Upper and Lower Canada.^[11] In the 20th century it acquired a technical sense, an apparatus for reforming petroleum products, recorded from 1934.^[7][8]

Timeline

• c. 1454 – one who reforms the conduct of another; a corrector or mediator.^[1][4]
• before 1500 – one who brings about reform in a practice or institution.^[1]
• 1561 – a leader or supporter of the Protestant Reformation.^[1]
• 1648 – an advocate of political or constitutional reform.^[1]
• 1656 – a reviser of a text, an editor (now rare).^[1]
• 1823 – an adherent of Reform Judaism.^[1]
• 1934 – an apparatus for reforming petroleum products.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who works for or brings about reform, especially in politics or society: a prison reformer.^[9][8][1]
2. (usually Reformer) A leader or supporter of the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century.^[9][8][1][3]
3. (usually Reformer) A supporter of political or parliamentary reform; in Canadian history, a member of the movement for responsible government.^[9][1][11]
4. An apparatus that converts petroleum products or gases into other substances, as in cracking.^[8][7]
5. (rare) A person who corrects the behaviour of another.^[1][10]

Word family

• antireformer
• counterreformer

Related words

• reform
• reformation
• reformed
• reformist
• form

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c 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)
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b Barber, Katherine, ed. (2004), The Canadian Oxford Dictionary, 2nd ed., Toronto: Oxford University Press