Etymograph

English

formative

Formative comes from Latin fōrmātus ‘shaped, formed, fashioned, formatted’.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfōrmātus‘shaped, formed, fashioned, formatted’
  2. Medieval Latinc. 600–1500formātīvus
  3. Old Frenchc. 842–1400formatif
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500formatyve
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1614formative

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfōrmātus‘shaped, formed, fashioned, formatted’
  2. Medieval Latinc. 600–1500formātīvus
  3. Old Frenchc. 842–1400formatif
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500formatyve
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1614formative

Earliest quotation: 1614, John Selden, The Preface: “[I]ts thought, that, in the Seed are alvvaies potentially…”

Equivalent to form + -ative

Latin fōrma ‘shape’

Old French forme ‘shape’

Middle English forme ‘shape’

English form

The story

From Middle English formatyve, formatif (‘having the ability to form’), from Old French formatif, formative (modern French formatif), from Medieval Latin formātīvus, from Latin fōrmātus + -īvus (suffix forming adjectives with the sense ‘doing’ or ‘related to doing’). Fōrmātus is the perfect passive participle of fōrmō (‘to form, to shape’), from fōrma (‘a form, shape’); further etymology uncertain, possibly related to Ancient Greek μορφή (morphḗ, “a form, shape”) (see further at that entry).uncertain The source flags this step as uncertain.

Every English word from Latin fōrmātus

Another origin of formative

  1. Old Frenchc. 842–1400formatif
  2. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600same form
  3. Germanc. 1650–presentFormativ
  4. Englishtodayformative

Etymology 2 sense 1 (‘thing which causes formation to occur’) is derived from the noun. Etymology 2 sense 2.1 (‘language unit’) is borrowed from German Formativ, a noun use of formativ (adjective), from Middle French formatif, from Old French formatif (see etymology 1).

Today it means

adj Capable of forming something.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Latin fōrmātus / formative

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