formă

Forms

formă f (plural forme)^[1] Transylvanian and old texts have the variant furmă: „Ce e furma omului celui ce s-au suit întru întîmpinare voao?” “what was the man like who came up to meet you?” (Bible of 1688).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French forme, with Latin forma beside it, in MDA2 and DEX, and Wiktionary gives Latin and French.^[3][4][1] Ciorănescu takes it from Latin in the 17th century and Tiktin from Latin, partly by way of other languages.^[5][2] Tamás explains that it was borrowed several times: first in Transylvania from Hungarian forma and the Latin of Hungary, the Hungarian word being recorded in Hungarian from the first half of the 16th century, later beyond the Carpathians from French and even Italian.^[6] The variant ⟨furmă⟩ follows Hungarian dialect furma in Tamás's view, while Ciorănescu, after Lacea, takes it from a Transylvanian Saxon form of German Form.^[6][5]

The origin of the Latin word is unknown.^[1] De Vaan considers a dissimilated ⟨*morma⟩ and a link with Ancient Greek μορφή (morphḗ, “form, shape”), both perhaps borrowed from a third language such as Etruscan.^[7][1] Latin formōsus “beautiful” survives in frumos.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is from the Palia de la Orăștie of 1581–1582, in the book of Exodus.^[2] MDA2 starts with the Bible of 1688, which has furmă “appearance”.^[3][2] In Dosoftei's Lives of the Saints God shapes a creature „în formă ca aceasta” “in a form like this”.^[2][9]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is the outward shape or appearance of a body, which old texts also called chip or făptură.^[3][2] The Transylvanian formă “brick mould” comes from the same Hungarian word, used there in the narrow sense of a mould.^[6] With the 19th-century neologisms it took the abstract senses of French forme: a form of government, the form of a word, the form opposed to content in philosophy, and the formal procedure in the phrase de formă “for form's sake”.^[4][10] Sport added a fi în formă “to be in form”.^[4][3]

Timeline

• 1581–1582 – first record, in the Palia de la Orăștie.^[2]
• 1688 – furmă in the Bucharest Bible.^[3][2]
• 1825 – the Lexicon de la Buda gives “figure, model, manner”.^[11]
• 1848 – entered in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. (philosophy) form as opposed to content: the internal and external structure of a thing or process.^[4][3]
2. Outward appearance, contour, silhouette;^[1] a fi în formă: to be in top condition.^[4][3][1]
3. (sport) the peak of fitness reached through training.^[4][3]
4. formă de relief: a landform.^[4]
5. All the means of expression of a work of art.^[4]
6. A manner or way of organisation;^[5][13][14] formă de guvernământ: a form of government.^[4]
7. A rule of procedure;^[5][13][14] de formă: for appearances only.^[4]
8. (linguistics) the sound shape of a word that carries its meaning or grammatical function.^[4][3]
9. A mould, pattern or tin; in printing, a page of type locked in its frame.^[4][3]

Word family

• forma
• neformat

Related words

• formal
• formulă
• deforma
• informa
• reforma
• frumos

Usage notes

A separate, now old Moldavian word formă meant “baker's oven, bakery”; it is from Bulgarian furna, itself from Turkish fırın, and is first recorded in Alecsandri.^[5][13][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. formă
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 930
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 407
5. ^ a b c d e Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. formă
6. ^ a b c Tamás, Lajos (1966), Etymologisch-historisches Wörterbuch der ungarischen Elemente im Rumänischen, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 357
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Cihac, A. de (1870), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane I: Éléments latins comparés avec les autres langues romanes, Frankfurt am Main, p. 98
9. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 521
10. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 257
11. ^ Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 224
12. ^ Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București, p. s.v. formă
13. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 931
14. ^ a b c Șăineanu, Lazăr (1885), Elemente turcești în limba română, București (offprint from Revista pentru istorie, archeologie și filologie), p. 44