μορφή

Forms

μορφή (morphḗ) f (genitive μορφῆς); first declension^[1] Doric μορφά, Aeolic μόρφα.^[2]

Etymology

The origin is unclear.^[1][3] A Hesychius gloss, ἀμερφές (amerphés, “ugly”), implies an old neuter *μέρφος (*mérphos), which would stand beside μορφή as γένος (génos) stands beside γονή (gonḗ); but the verb that both nouns presuppose is nowhere found.^[3][4] Solmsen linked the word with μόρφνος (mórphnos) and Lithuanian márgas “colourful, beautiful”, from a root Proto-Indo-European *mergʷʰ- (“to shimmer”), but Chantraine finds that this leads nowhere.^[3][4] Others connect the Baltic words for “girl”, Lithuanian mergà, through a shift from “shape” to “lovely shape”.^[1]

The likeness to Latin fōrma “form” is striking, but the long ō is a difficulty.^[4] Chantraine, following Ernout and Meillet, takes fōrma as a borrowing from Greek, probably through Etruscan, and Beekes considers this possible, or else that both come from that root, with the sounds reordered in Latin.^[4][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Homer has it only twice, both times of words: in the Odyssey a god “crowns” a plain man's words with shapeliness, and Odysseus is praised for the grace of his speech.^[5][4]

Semantic evolution

From Homer's “comeliness” of words, μορφή became the usual word for a body's visible shape and especially its beauty, in Pindar and tragedy.^[4][2] Philosophers distinguished it from εἶδος (eîdos) “appearance”: Plato speaks of a god changing his own εἶδος into many μορφαί, and Aristotle uses μορφή for shape.^[4][2] It also came to mean the kind or aspect of abstract things such as calamities and ways of life.^[2]

In the Septuagint and the New Testament it is “form, outward appearance”; in Philippians Christ, being in the form of God, takes the form of a slave.^[6][7] The verb μορφόω (morphóō) “to give shape” appears from Theophrastus on, and the name of Morpheus, son of Sleep, refers to the shapes he shows in dreams.^[4] Modern Greek μορφή (morfí) keeps the word as a learned term for shape and appearance; its uses for “figure” and for the “form” of a work are modelled on French figure, forme and German Gestalt.^[8]

Timeline

• Homer – The Odyssey uses it twice, of the grace of speech.^[5][4]
• 6th century BC – Theognis uses it in his elegies.^[9][10]
• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar uses it for bodily form and beauty, and Parmenides of the two “forms” mortals name.^[5][4][10]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle distinguishes shape (μορφή) from appearance.^[2][5][10]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament uses it in Philippians of the form of God and the form of a slave.^[7]
• Modern Greek – μορφή (morfí) means shape, appearance and figure.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. Form, shape, visible appearance of a person, god, animal or thing.^[2][5]
2. (philosophy) Shape, as opposed to εἶδος (eîdos) “appearance”.^[2]
3. Fine shape, beauty.^[2][5]
4. (Homer) Grace or comeliness of speech.^[5][4]
5. Kind, sort or aspect of something abstract.^[2]
6. (New Testament) Form or nature, inner and outer, as in the form of God or of a slave.^[7][11]

Word family

• εὔμορφος (eúmorphos)
• μορφόω (morphóō)
• τετράμορφος (tetrámorphos)
• ἄμορφος (ámorphos)

Related words

• Latin fōrma

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
3. ^ a b c Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Chantraine, Pierre (2009), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots, new ed. with a supplement (Chroniques d'étymologie grecque 1–10), Paris: Klincksieck
5. ^ a b c d e f g Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
7. ^ a b c Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
8. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
9. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
10. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
11. ^ United Bible Societies (2023), UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament (revised Louw–Nida semantic domains), open-licence ed.