formosus

Forms

fōrmōsus (feminine fōrmōsa, neuter fōrmōsum, comparative fōrmōsior, superlative fōrmōsissimus, adverb fōrmōsē); first/second-declension adjective^[1] It is also spelled fōrmōnsus, in inscriptions and in some texts of Virgil.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin fōrma (“form, beauty”) + -ōsus.^[2][1] The origin of ⟨fōrma⟩ is unclear: de Vaan suggests an older ⟨*morma⟩ dissimilated as in formīca (“ant”) and formīdō (“dread”), and thinks it and Ancient Greek μορφή (morphḗ, “form, shape”) may have been borrowed from a third language, or the Greek word may have reached Latin through Etruscan.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus, Mercator, speaks of a pretty she-goat, fōrmōsam capram.^[2][6] De Vaan records it from Terence on.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Fōrmōsus is beautiful in form, of persons (Terence: how much handsomer you look now!, Afranius: fōrmōsa virgō est), animals (Virgil's “keeper of a fair flock”), parts of the body and things: Cicero finds the pyramid a more beautiful shape, and Virgil's shepherd says nunc fōrmōsissimus annus, “now the year is at its loveliest”.^[2] Transferred to qualities, Cicero writes that nothing is more beautiful than virtue.^[2]

Döderlein says fōrmōsus is beauty that pleases by fineness of form, while pulcher is beauty that commands admiration by its perfection, and venustus beauty that charms.^[7] Church Latin glosses it “beautiful”.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a pretty she-goat.^[2][6]
• 190–159 BC – Terence of a handsome young man.^[2][5][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of the pyramid and of virtue.^[2][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil: nunc fōrmōsissimus annus.^[2][6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. beautiful, handsome, fair.^[2][1][8]
2. Well-formed, finely shaped.^[2][1]
3. (of qualities) Fine, admirable.^[2]

Word family

• fōrmōsitās
• formōsulus

Related words

• fōrma
• fōrmō
• fōrmōsē
• pulcher

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson