transformar

Forms

transformar (first-person singular present transformo, first-person singular preterite transformei, past participle transformado)^[1] Medieval texts also write trasformado and transfforma.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin trānsfōrmō (“to change in shape, transform”), a learned word according to Wiktionary and Nascentes.^[1][4] Houaiss and Cunha both derive it from the Latin verb, which Houaiss glosses “to convert into, metamorphose”.^[3][5]

The Latin verb is a compound of trāns- (“across”) and fōrmō (“to shape, form”).^[6][1] It belongs to poetry and to prose after Augustus, and Virgil uses it of Proteus turning himself into every kind of marvel.^[7][6]

The same Latin word gave Galician transformar, Spanish transformar, Catalan transformar, Italian trasformare and Romanian transforma.^[1] French transformer is a learned remaking, from about 1300, of the earlier and more French-looking tresformer.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the verb to the 14th century.^[3][5] Lorenzo's chronology quotes the Galician Estoria, et forõ aly transformados “and there they were transformed”, and the Frades Menores, fosse trasformado “that he be transformed”.^[2] Cunha gives its early senses as “to transfigure; to convert, change”.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The dictionaries of the 17th and 18th centuries explain the word with Latin: Pereira gives muto “to change”, and Folqman (1755) illustrates it with people changed into birds and Jupiter turned into a bull, from Hyginus.^[9][10] Morais (1813) defines it as causing a transformation in something and adds a figurative use, “you have turned from a Portuguese into an Italian”, from Arraes.^[11]

Today it means any change of form, nature or state, and the pronominal transformar-se also means “to disguise oneself”.^[3] Grammar uses it for changing one structure into another, and in Portugal sports writing uses it for converting a scoring chance into a goal.^[3][12] The family grew from the 16th century: transformação in the 16th, transformativo in the 17th, transformador in 1813 and transformismo in the 19th.^[5]

Timeline

• 14th century – first records of the verb.^[3][5]
• 15th century – the spelling transfforma.^[3]
• 16th century – first record of transformação.^[5]
• 1697 – Pereira's Thesouro glosses transformar with Latin transformo and muto.^[9]
• 1755 – Folqman gives examples of people changed into birds.^[10]
• 1813 – Morais records the figurative sense;^[11][5] transformador is first recorded.^[11][5]
• 1836 – Constâncio's dictionary lists transformante.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To give or take on a new form, look or character; to alter, change (transitive and pronominal): A reforma transformou por completo a velha casa.^[3][13][14]
2. To turn (someone or something) into something else, with em; to convert: O frio transformou a chuva em neve.^[3][12]
3. (pronominal) To pass oneself off as someone else; to disguise oneself.^[3][14]
4. (grammar) To change one sentence structure into another by a transformação.^[3]
5. (sport, Portugal) To convert a scoring chance into a goal.^[12]

Word family

• transformação
• transformador
• transformante
• transformativo
• transformável
• transformismo

Related words

• forma
• formar
• Latin trānsfōrmō
• Spanish transformar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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. transformar
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. transformar
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. transformar
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. transformar
6. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. transformō
7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. transformo
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. transformer
9. ^ a b Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. transformar
10. ^ a b Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. transformar
11. ^ a b c Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 796
12. ^ a b c 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. transformar
13. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. transformar
14. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. transformar