formative meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

formative

adj

UK /ˈfɔːmətɪv/ · CA, US /ˈfoɹmətɪv/

Etymology 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). By surface analysis, form + -ative.

Capable of forming something.

[I]ts thought, that, in the Seed are alvvaies potentially ſeuerall indiuiduating Qualities deriu'd from diuers of the neere Anceſtors, vvhich by the formatiue povver of the Parents may be expreſt in the Children, vvith reſpectiue habitude to either Sex; […]1614, John Selden, “The Preface”, in Titles of Honor, London: […] William Stansby for Iohn Helme, […], →OCLC, signature [b4], recto:
Hybrids, […] have their reproductive organs functionally impotent, as may be clearly seen in the state of the male element in both plants and animals; though the formative organs themselves are perfect in structure, as far as the microscope reveals.1866, Charles Darwin, “Hybridism”, in On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, […], 4th edition, London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 293:

Biology, Natural sciences Capable of producing new tissue.

Human sciences, Linguistic morphology, Linguistics, Morphology, Sciences Pertaining to the formation of words; specifically, of an affix: forming words through inflection.

Of or pertaining to the formation and subsequent growth of something.

My formative years were spent in an inner city.

Education Of a form of assessment: used to guide learning rather than to quantify educational outcomes.

Derived terms: formatively, formativeness, neoformative, neuroformative, postformative, preformative, reformative, unformative, vasoformative
Related terms: formulative, informative

formative

noun

Etymology 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).

A thing which causes formation to occur.

[T]his museum of the state of flux [Newmarket, Suffolk] has a climate unrivalled for the production of the British temperament. Not without a due proportion of that essential formative of character, east wind, it has at once the hottest sun, the coldest blizzards, the wettest rain, of any place of its size in 'the three kingdoms.'1907, John Galsworthy, “The Happy Hunting-ground”, in The Country House, London: William Heinemann, →OCLC, part I, page 33:

Human sciences, Linguistic morphology, Linguistics, Morphology, Sciences A language unit, typically a morph, that has a morphological function (that is, forming a word from a root or another word).

Human sciences, Linguistic morphology, Linguistics, Morphology, Sciences Synonym of derivative (“a word that derives from another one”).