forma

Forms

forma f (plural formas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin fōrma (“form, figure, image, configuration; beauty”).^[2][3][4][1] Corominas calls it a very old semi-learned word: it appears in the Glosas Silenses and in a document of 1206, though there it may not yet be a Castilian word.^[2] The inherited doublet is horma “shoemaker's last”, which shows the change of Latin f- to h-; the spelling with f- still had that sense about 1400 in the Glosario del Escorial, and the form with h- is in Nebrija.^[2][3][5] The same Latin word gave Portuguese forma, Catalan forma and Italian forma, and French forme was taken from it at the end of the 11th century.^[6][7][8]

The origin of the Latin word is unclear.^[9][1] Because formīca (“ant”) and formīdō (“ghost, scarecrow”) point to a dissimilation of *m–m to *f–m, de Vaan thinks the Latin word may go back to *morma.^[9] Latin and Ancient Greek μορφή (morphḗ, “form, shape”) may have been borrowed from a third language, or the Greek word may have passed through Etruscan into Latin.^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first hit is in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy): Aaron takes the earrings, metiolas en la forma e salio vezerro forjado “put them in the mould, and a forged calf came out”.^[10] The Fuero de Zorita (1218–c. 1250) also uses it for a mould, that of the roof tiles, and the Vida de Santa María Egipciaca (c. 1215) for the shape of the body: en buena forma fue tajada “she was well shaped”.^[10] Corominas and the Breve diccionario date the first record to Berceo (1220–1250), who uses the word for “figure”, “phantom” and “rule of life”.^[2][3][11]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose has the shape of a body or a stone, the manner of doing something, the philosophical principle that with matter makes up a being, and the figure of the human body.^[12] Nebrija gave forma o manera with the Latin forma and modus.^[13] Covarrubias in 1611 called it “all that gives being to a thing”, left the subject to the logicians, and recorded enojarse en forma “to get angry in earnest”.^[14] The Diccionario de Autoridades put the scholastic sense first, then “figure, shape” and “rule, model, way of proceeding”.^[15] The Academy's dictionary of 1884 gave the etymology for the first time and added the mould and the size of a book.^[16]

In the Canaries and the sugar-growing Americas forma was the clay mould for sugar loaves; a document of 1494 from Agaete lists the formas of a sugar mill.^[17][18] From English form, the word now means a printed form to be filled in, in the United States, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and parts of South America.^[19][20][21] The DLE also records the sense “physical fitness”, as in estar en forma.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar uses forma for a mould (in a 13th-century copy).^[10]
• c. 1215 – the Vida de Santa María Egipciaca uses it for the shape of the body.^[10]
• 1220–1250 – Berceo; the first record according to Corominas.^[2][3]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario has the shape of a stone and the philosophical form.^[12]
• c. 1400 – the Glosario del Escorial has forma for the shoemaker's last, later horma.^[2][3]
• 1494 – sugar-loaf moulds are recorded at Agaete, in Gran Canaria.^[17]
• 1514 – the first record in the Americas, at Darién: juraron en forma de derecho.^[22]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records enojarse en forma.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology “Del lat. forma”.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. shape, external configuration of something.^[4][1]
2. way, manner in which something is done or happens: Lo explicó de una forma sencilla.^[4][1]
3. The way something is organised: forma de gobierno.^[4]
4. In a literary text, the style or way of expressing ideas, as opposed to the content.^[4][23]
5. Physical or mental fitness for an activity: Tras el verano está en baja forma.^[4]
6. A mould into which something is poured to take its shape.^[4]
7. (architecture) Each of the arches on which a sail vault rests.^[4]
8. (law) The external requirements that a legal act must meet; the procedural questions of a case, as opposed to its merits.^[4]
9. (philosophy) The active principle that determines matter and, with it, makes up the essence of a being.^[4][24]
10. (printing) The forme placed in the press to print one side of a sheet.^[4]
11. (linguistics) One of the elements that make up a grammatical paradigm: las formas del verbo.^[4]
12. (Latin America) A printed form to fill in.^[19][1]

Word family

• formar
• formal
• formón
• conformar
• deformar
• informar
• reformar
• transformar

Related words

• horma
• fórmula
• uniforme
• conforme
• deforme
• hermoso
• Latin fōrma

Usage notes

Set phrases include de todas formas “in any case”, de forma que “so that” and en debida forma “in due form”.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 932
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. forma
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. forma
5. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. forma
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 2878
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. forma
11. ^ Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 377
12. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. forma
13. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 354
14. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 859
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 778
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 504
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. forma
18. ^ García Icazbalceta, Joaquín (1899), Vocabulario de mexicanismos comprobado con ejemplos y comparado con los de otros países hispano-americanos, México: La Europea
19. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. forma
20. ^ Moreno-Fernández, Francisco (2018), Diccionario de anglicismos del español estadounidense (Informes del Observatorio 037-01/2018SP), Cambridge, Mass.: Instituto Cervantes at Harvard University, p. 60
21. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr
22. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. forma
23. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. forma
24. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. forma