deformo

Forms

dēfōrmō (present infinitive dēfōrmāre, perfect active dēfōrmāvī, supine dēfōrmātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin dē- + fōrmō (“to shape”);^[2][1][3] the TLL derives it from dē- and either that verb or fōrma (“shape”).^[3] Wiktionary sees two sources with two different meanings, the prefixed verb “to shape, outline” and a verb made from dēfōrmis (“misshapen”) “to disfigure”, and Lewis & Short give them separate entries, while the OLD treats them as one word.^[1][4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from Ennius, Plautus and Cato on.^[3] Ennius has walls that stand disfigured, and Cato uses it of laying out garden beds.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In one set of senses it is to give an outline to, lay out or shape, as Cato's beds, and to arrange a plan, as Plautus has a character who had everything settled and laid out.^[2] It is to portray or model, as Vitruvius says painters and sculptors show Atlas holding up the world, and to sketch in words, describe, as Cicero speaks of the man he described above.^[2] In the other it is to spoil the appearance of, disfigure: Accius has someone disfigured by a foul wound, and Virgil leanness disfiguring a face.^[2][4] Apuleius uses it of transforming an innkeeper into a frog.^[2] Figuratively it is to bring shame on, and to spoil or impair abstract things, as Cicero asks what can be called more defiled, deformed and perverted.^[2] Church Latin glosses it disfigure, engrave, delineate.^[5] English deform (c. 1400) came through Old French and directly from Latin.^[6]

Timeline

• 204–169 BC – Ennius of disfigured walls.^[2][3]
• 234–149 BC – Cato of laying out beds.^[2][3]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius of portraying Atlas.^[2]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius of a transformation into a frog.^[2]
• c. 1400 – English deform.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To outline, lay out, shape; to arrange a plan.^[2][4][1]
2. To portray, model; to describe, delineate.^[2][4][1][5]
3. To disfigure, deform, spoil the appearance of; to transform into something uglier.^[2][4][1][5]
4. To disgrace; to spoil, impair.^[2][4]

Word family

• dēfōrmātiō

Related words

• fōrmō
• dēfōrmis
• fōrma
• English deform

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com