transformer

Etymology

It is formed from English transform + -er.^[2][3][4][5] In the electrical sense it first translated French transformateur.^[4][2] The verb transform is from Middle English transformen, from Old French transformer, from Latin trānsfōrmō (“to change in shape”), from trāns- (“across, beyond”) and fōrmō (“to form”), from fōrma (“form”).^[3][6][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Someone or something that transforms: 1596 in Merriam-Webster,^[7][8] about 1600 in Etymonline,^[3] and 1601 in the OED, in Deacon and Walker's Dialogicall Discourses of Spirits.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The electrical sense, an apparatus for changing the voltage of a current, is recorded from 1882 in Etymonline;^[3] the OED's first record is from 1883, a translation of Hospitalier's work on the modern uses of electricity.^[2] At first it could also mean a device that turned direct into alternating current;^[2][4] today it is the device that passes alternating current from one circuit to another by induction, raising or lowering the voltage.^[7][9] From 1984, with a capital, Transformer was the trade name of a toy robot, first made in Japan, that can be refolded into a vehicle or other object.^[2] Green's records the US gang slang sense "spy", after the toys, from 1991,^[10] and the New Partridge a slang use for a transsexual.^[11] In computing, a transformer is a kind of neural network built from layers of attention.^[12]

Timeline

• 1596 – someone or something that transforms.^[7]
• 1882 – a device that changes electric currents.^[3]
• 1883 – an apparatus for changing the voltage of a current, after French transformateur.^[2]
• 1888 – attributive, as in transformer station.^[13]
• 1984 – Transformer, a toy robot that turns into another object.^[2]
• 1991 – US gang slang, a spy.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A device that transfers alternating current from one circuit to another by electromagnetic induction, usually raising or lowering the voltage: a step-down transformer.^[7][9][14]
2. Someone or something that transforms.^[7][9][2]
3. (computing) A neural network design built from layers of attention, used to process sequences such as text.^[12]
4. Transformer: a toy robot that can be refolded into a vehicle or other object.^[2][12]

Word family

• autotransformer

Related words

• transform
• transformation
• form

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ 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 e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
11. ^ Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge
12. ^ a b c Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
13. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin