conformo

Forms

cōnfōrmō (present infinitive cōnfōrmāre, perfect active cōnfōrmāvī, supine cōnfōrmātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin con- (“with, together”) + fōrmō (“to form, shape”),^[2][3][1] and fōrmō is from fōrma (“form, shape”).^[1] The origin of that noun is unclear; de Vaan thinks it and Ancient Greek μορφή (morphḗ, “form, shape”) may have been borrowed from a third language.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from Afranius on,^[3][5] in a comedy where someone orders that a girl be looked after and properly decked out (puellam cūrent, cōnfōrment probē).^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Lewis and Short note that Cicero uses it several times and that it is otherwise very rare in the classical period.^[6] Cicero has it of nature shaping people for greater things, of speech shaped by the arrangement of words, and of training character;^[2][7] in a letter he says he adapts himself to the will of a man from whom he cannot honourably dissent (ipse mē cōnfōrmō ad eius voluntātem).^[2][3] Vitruvius describes the sky as shaped by the stars and their courses,^[2] and Gellius says a she-bear shapes its cub by licking it.^[7]

Christian writers used it for being shaped after a model: the Vulgate has nōlīte cōnfōrmārī huic saeculō, “do not be conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2), and Ambrose and Augustine write of conforming oneself to Christ or to God.^[3] Ecclesiastical Latin also used it for educating.^[8] English took it over in the 14th century as conform, partly through Old French.^[9]

Timeline

• second half of the 2nd century BC – Afranius uses it of dressing up a girl.^[3][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of shaping speech and character and of adapting oneself.^[2][6][5]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it of the sky shaped by the stars.^[2][5]
• c. 165 AD – Gellius uses it of a she-bear licking its cub into shape.^[7][5]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses the passive of being conformed to the world.^[3][5]
• mid-14th century – English borrows it as conform.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To shape, fashion, mould; to outline or sketch (a design, a mental picture).^[2][6]
2. To deck out, dress up.^[2]
3. To give shape to ideas or speech.^[2]
4. To make to correspond, bring into harmony;^[2][10] (reflexive) to adapt oneself.^[2][10]
5. To train, educate.^[2][8]
6. (Ecclesiastical Latin) (passive) To be conformed (to the world, to Christ).^[3][8]

Word family

• conformalis
• cōnfōrmātiō
• conformator

Related words

• fōrma
• fōrmō
• English conform

Usage notes

Manuscripts often confuse it with cōnfirmō.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
8. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier