formare

Forms

formare (first-person singular present fórmo, first-person singular past historic formài, past participle formàto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is a learned word: borrowed from Latin fōrmāre (“to shape, form”), a verb made from forma (“form, shape”).^{[2][3][4][5][6]}

The Latin verb lives on across the western Romance languages: French former, Occitan formar, Catalan formar, Spanish formar and Portuguese formar, and Sardinian formare in Logudorese.^[7][2] DEI notes that the Spanish and Catalan words are learned, and that the verb passed into German formen and Dutch vormen.^[8] The origin of the Latin noun itself is unknown.^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is from about 1224, in Francis of Assisi, with the sense “to model something into the shape wanted”.^[10][3] He praises God for the moon and the stars: in celu l’ài formate clarite e preziose e belle (“in heaven you have formed them, bright and precious and fair”).^[4]

Semantic evolution

Latin already used the verb for moulding a person's character as well as material.^[11] In Italian the reflexive “to come into being” appears before 1303 in Onesto da Bologna, the sense “to educate” by teaching and example in a 14th-century translation of St Bernard, and “to give rise to” in the vernacular Crescenzi of about 1350.^[10]

The modern dictionaries add the senses “to compose, make up” (a sentence, a chemical compound), “to set up” (a government, a family) and, with a plural subject, “to constitute”.^[3][12][13] In shipbuilding the verb means to begin a hull on the slipway by fitting its frames.^[3][14] The pronominal formarsi is used of things that take shape (ice, a hole, a weather front) and of a person who matures or is trained.^[12]

Timeline

• c. 1224 – Francis of Assisi uses formare “to shape”.^[10][3]
• Before 1303 – Onesto da Bologna uses the reflexive.^[10]
• 1308 – formazione is first recorded.^[2]
• 14th century – The sense “to educate” appears in a translation of St Bernard.^[10]
• c. 1350 – The vernacular Crescenzi uses it for “to give rise to”.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. To shape, mould, give form to: formare una ciotola di creta.^{[3][12][13][1]}
2. (figurative) To train, educate; to shape someone's mind or character: Lo sport forma i ragazzi.^{[3][12][6][1]}
3. To arrange things or people in a given shape: Gli alunni formarono una fila.^[3][6]
4. To compose by putting elements together; with a plural subject, to make up, constitute: Tre stanze formano la casa.^[3][12]
5. To create, found, set up: Hanno formato una nuova società sportiva.^{[3][12][6][1]}
6. To be, represent: I nipoti formano la sua felicità.^[3][12][15]
7. (nautical) To begin building a hull on the slipway by fitting its frames.^[3][14]
8. (pronominal, formarsi) To take shape, develop; to mature, be trained: Sul vetro si è formata la condensa.^[12]

Word family

• formazione
• formato
• formatore
• formatrice
• formativo
• formante
• formatura
• preformare

Related words

• forma
• conformare
• deformare
• riformare

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
5. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1689
9. ^ 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 e f Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c d e f g h Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
13. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli