horma

Forms

horma f (plural hormas)^[1] Before the ⟨h⟩ spelling the word was written forma in this sense, about 1400 in the Glosarios del Escorial and in Alonso de Palencia.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin fōrma (“form, shape; mould”).^[4][1][5] It is the popular doublet of the semi-learned forma, which has been used since Berceo and kept the Latin spelling.^[2][3] The inherited word specialised in material senses, above all the shoemaker's last and the hatter's block.^[5]

The same Latin word is Portuguese forma (“mould”), Galician forma, Catalan forma and Italian forma.^[6][7]

The origin of the Latin noun is unknown; it may have come through Etruscan from Ancient Greek μορφή (morphḗ, “shape”), with the dissimilation of the first m to f.^[1][8] Cejador derived the sense “dry stone wall” from Basque, an idea Corominas does not take up.^[9][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas found horma first in Nebrija, and the BDELC dates it 1490; the CDH has an earlier record in a Profecía of about 1460, in which los zapateros con sus echabarriles y hormas come out with their tools, so the word already meant the shoemaker's last.^[2][3][10] Older hits in the CDH are the biblical place name Horma and the Greek word hormas in a translation of Cicero.^[10]

Semantic evolution

By the end of the 15th century the word was also used for a wall of dry stone: a 1494 translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus speaks of a field çercada de hormas e setos, “enclosed with walls and hedges”.^[10] Nebrija gave horma de çapatero with Latin forma about 1495.^[11][10] Covarrubias in 1611 described the wooden last in the shape of a foot, mentioned the hatters' moulds, and recorded the phrase hallar la horma de su zapato, said when someone meets their match.^[12]

The Autoridades of 1734 defined it as the mould on which shoes and hats are shaped, and called the dry stone wall an old sense.^[13] Terreros noted in 1787 that farmers still used it for a stone wall built against floods.^[14] In the Americas the word names the clay mould in which sugar loaves set, recorded in the Canaries from 1494 in the form forma.^[4][15][16]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – the Glosarios del Escorial use forma in this sense.^[2][3]
• c. 1460 – the Profecía of Evangelista names the shoemakers' hormas.^[10]
• 1494 – Vicente de Burgos uses hormas for dry stone walls.^[10]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija: Horma de çapatero.^[11][10]
• 1547 – the first record from the Americas, in Puebla, where a shoemaker lists sixty pairs of lasts.^[17]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records hallar la horma de su zapato.^[12]
• 1734 – the Autoridades defines the mould and the dry stone wall.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from forma.^[18]

Meanings

Noun

1. A mould on which something is made or shaped, especially a shoemaker's last or a hat block.^[4][1][19]
2. A shoe tree, put into shoes to keep their shape: Guarda las botas con una horma dentro.^[4][19][1]
3. The shape of a shoe in relation to the foot: unos zapatos de horma estrecha.^[5]
4. A dry stone wall.^[4][1]
5. (Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela) A vessel or mould for making sugar loaves.^[4][20]
6. (Cuba, historical) A conical vessel with a hole at the tip, in which processed cane juice was left to crystallise.^[4]

Word family

• ahormar
• hormilla
• hormero
• hormazo

Related words

• forma
• formar
• Latin fōrma

Usage notes

The phrase encontrar or hallar la horma de su zapato means both to find just what suits one and, ironically, to meet someone who can resist one's tricks.^[4][18] The Autoridades quotes it from the Pícara Justina.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 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 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. horma
5. ^ a b c Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. horma
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 2878
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1908–1914), Tesoro de la lengua castellana: origen y vida del lenguaje, 12 vols., Madrid: Perlado, Páez y Compañía, p. s.v. horma
10. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. horma
11. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (c. 1495), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca (facsimile, Madrid: Real Academia Española 1951), p. s.v. horma
12. ^ 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. 994
13. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 177
14. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 2, 307
15. ^ 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. horma
16. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 914
17. ^ 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. horma
18. ^ 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. 575
19. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. horma
20. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. horma