formar

Forms

formar (first-person singular present formo, first-person singular preterite formei, past participle formado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin fōrmō (“to shape, fashion”), written Old Galician-Portuguese formar in the oldest texts.^[2][1][3] The Latin verb is formed from fōrma (“form, shape”).^[4][5] The same verb is Italian formare, French former, Catalan formar and Spanish formar.^[6]

The origin of the Latin noun is unclear.^[5][1] De Vaan considers that it may go back to *morma, with the same change of ⟨m⟩ to ⟨f⟩ before another ⟨m⟩ as in formīca (“ant”);^[5][1] Latin and Ancient Greek μορφή (morphḗ, “form, shape”) could then share a source in a third language, or the Greek word could have reached Latin through Etruscan.^[5][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo's chronology and the glossaries cite the Cantigas de Santa Maria for the sense “to create, to shape”, used of God: o que te formou “he who formed you”, and of Christ made man in the Virgin, ome formado.^[7] The Crónica Troiana has deus o mundo formou “God formed the world”.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau and Feijó define the verb as giving form or figure to a thing;^[8][9][10] Feijó adds that at the University it means “to take one's degree”, and Folqman in 1755 marks formar-se as a university term.^[8][9][10] Folqman also has formar hum esquadrão “to draw up a squadron”, and Morais in 1813 formar a companhia, so the military sense “to fall into line” is old.^[10][11] Figueiredo in 1899 gathers the senses “to produce, create”, “to put in line”, “to instruct” and “to graduate”.^[12]

The modern dictionaries add “to make up, constitute”, “to found” and the grammatical sense “to form a word or plural”.^[2][13]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records, in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[2][14][7]
• 1491 – formar in the Vida de Santo Elói.^[15]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders it with Latin formo.^[16]
• 1734 – Feijó records the university sense “to take one's degree”.^[9]
• 1755 – Folqman has formar hum esquadrão.^[10]
• 1813 – Morais records formar a companhia.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, also pronominal) To give shape to; to take shape: As nuvens formavam figuras estranhas.^[2][17]
2. (transitive) To conceive, to devise: formar um projeto de viagem.^[2][17]
3. (transitive) To make up, to constitute: Os três irmãos formavam uma banda.^[2][18]
4. (transitive) To set up, to found: formar um governo.^[2][19]
5. (transitive, also pronominal) To bring about or come about: Formou-se gelo no lago.^[2][20]
6. (transitive, intransitive and pronominal) To draw up or fall into line: As tropas formaram para a revista.^[2][19]
7. (transitive, also pronominal) To educate or be educated; to shape someone's character.^[2][20]
8. (pronominal) To graduate, to take a degree: Formou-se em medicina.^[2][1]
9. (grammar) To form a word or an inflected form by the rules of the language.^[2]

Word family

• formação
• formador
• formando
• formatura
• formado

Related words

• forma
• reformar
• transformar
• conformar
• Latin fōrmō
• Spanish formar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. formar
3. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. formar
4. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3443
7. ^ a b c Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. formar
8. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. formar
9. ^ a b c Feijó, João de Morais Madureira (1734), Orthographia, ou Arte de escrever, e pronunciar com acerto a lingua portugueza, Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. formar
10. ^ a b c d Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. formar
11. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 48
12. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 626
13. ^ Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. formar
14. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. formar
15. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. formar
16. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. formar
17. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. formar
18. ^ Wikcionário (Portuguese Wiktionary), pt.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. formar
19. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. formar
20. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 4407