transforma

Forms

transforma (third-person singular present transformă, past participle transformat, third-person subjunctive transforme) 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French transformer, with borrowed from Latin trānsfōrmō as a second source, as DEX, DN, MDN, MDA2 and the DLR all give it.^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} Tiktin gives only the New Latin verb, Graur lists it among the Romanian neologisms of the family of Latin fōrma (“form”).^[7][8] The Latin verb is formed from trāns- (“across”) and fōrmō (“to shape”).^[9][1] The French verb is a learned remaking, around 1300, of the older tresformer, after the same Latin word.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Gherasim Gorjan's Halima of 1835, a Romanian version of Arabian tales, where the new word is explained in brackets: „a le transforma (a le preface în alt chip)” “to transform them (to remake them in another shape)”.^[6][5][7]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was a change of shape or appearance, and soon of nature and character; it also became a word of chemistry and physics, of a substance turned into a crystal and of energy changed from one form into another.^[6][5] Mathematics took it for constructing an equivalent of a figure or an equation.^[2][3] The sports sense, scoring points from a penalty or a try, is recent.^[2] Old texts also have the variant straforma and a present transformez beside transform.^[5] The noun transformare is recorded in the same book of 1835.^[5]

Timeline

• 1835 – transforma and transformare in Gorjan's Halima.^[5][7]
• 1862 – in Pontbriant's dictionary, glossed French transformer, métamorphoser.^[11]
• 1929 – transformator “transformer” in a customs lexicon.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive and reflexive) To transform, to change the look or form of something; to change, to turn into: a se transforma în “to turn into”.^[2][5][1]
2. (specifically) To change one's character, behaviour or way of being.^[2]
3. (mathematics, transitive) To construct an equivalent of a given figure or value, changing some elements and keeping others according to set formulas;^[2] (physics) to change one form of energy into an equivalent amount of another.^[2]
4. (sports, intransitive) To score one or more points by successfully taking a penalty kick or converting a try.^[2]
5. (transitive) To convert a currency into foreign money.^[5]

Word family

• transformare
• transformator

Related words

• formă
• forma

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1137
3. ^ a b Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. transforma
4. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. transforma
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1255
6. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. transforma
7. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. transforma
8. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 44
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. transformo
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. transformer
11. ^ Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 747