Etymograph

English

inform

Inform comes from Latin īnfōrmō ‘to shape, form, train, instruct, educate’, and goes back to fōrma.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfōrma
  2. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEfōrmō‘to form, make’
  3. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEīnfōrmō‘to shape, form, train, instruct, educate’
  4. Old Frenchc. 842–1400enformer
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500informen
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1591inform

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfōrma
  2. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEfōrmō‘to form, make’
  3. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEīnfōrmō‘to shape, form, train, instruct, educate’
  4. Old Frenchc. 842–1400enformer
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500informen
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1591inform

Earliest quotation: 1591, Edmund Spenser, Prosopopoia. Or Mother Hubberds Tale.: “For he would learn their business secretly, / And…”

Formed from in- + form

Proto-Indo-European *h₁én ‘in’

Proto-Germanic *in ‘into’

English in-

Latin fōrma ‘shape’

Old French forme ‘shape’

Middle English forme ‘shape’

English form

Linked words

through Ancient Greek μορφή ‘shape, form’

morphology, morph, 30 more

through Etruscan *morma

uniformity, deformable, 19 more

through Latin fōrma

transformation, formula, formal, uniform, forma, fromage, 25 more

through Latin fōrmō ‘to form, make’

formation, reform, format, deform, 8 more

Another origin of inform

  1. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEμορφήmorphḗ‘shape, form’uncertain
  2. Etruscanmodern*mormauncertain
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfōrma
  4. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEin- -is‘-less, without, lacking’
  5. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEīnfōrmis‘formless, shapeless’
  6. Englishtodayinform

Today it means

verb To instruct, train (usually in matters of knowledge).

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

Etymograph / Latin fōrma / inform

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