conformer

Forms

conformer^[1] Anglo-Norman counformer, confourmer, cumfurmer and cunfurmer.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin cōnfōrmō (“to give a shape to, to fashion”), figuratively “to adapt, to model”.^[3][4][5] The Latin verb is formed from cum (“with”) and fōrmō (“to form”), from fōrma (“shape”).^[4][6][7] Wiktionary notes that it can also be analysed in French as conforme with the verb ending ⟨-er⟩.^[1]

Littré compares Old Occitan conformar, Spanish conformar and Italian conformare.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded about 1190 in the French Sermons of Saint Bernard, meaning “to make conform to”.^[3][7] The reflexive soi conformer à “to become conform to” follows in 1204, in the Reclus de Molliens.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

Beside the senses of the Latin verb, French gave it the figurative sense of bringing one thing into harmony with another taken as a model, and the reflexive se conformer à, “to comply with”.^[4] In Anglo-Norman it covered shaping, adapting, agreeing to and resembling.^[2] Littré quotes the 13th-century Roman de la Rose (Conformés vous à sa maniere) and Calvin, for whom God adapts himself to men as a nurse to small children.^[8]

The verb produced few derivatives: the adjective conformé, from the past participle, used mostly of the body (bien, mal conformé, 1740), and conformateur, first recorded in 1611 and then from 1845 for a hatter's device for measuring the head.^[4][5] The technical sense “to give a definite shape to” is dated 1829, in Boiste.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 1190 – First recorded in the Sermons of Saint Bernard.^[3][7]
• 1204 – The reflexive soi conformer à appears in the Reclus de Molliens.^[3][4]
• 1611 – Conformateur is first recorded.^[5][4]
• 1740 – Bien, mal conformé is used of the body.^[4]
• 1829 – Boiste records the sense “to give a shape to”.^[7]
• 1845 – Conformateur names a hatter's measuring device.^[4][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To bring something into line with a model, a principle or an ideal, to adapt: conformer sa vie à ses idées.^[9][3][8]
2. (technology) To give a definite shape to (something made of a soft material).^[3][7]
3. Se conformer à: to comply with, to conform to (rules, orders, circumstances).^[9][8]

Word family

• conformateur
• conformé

Related words

• conforme
• conformité
• conformément
• former
• Latin cōnfōrmō

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
3. ^ a b c d e f g Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b c d e f Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert