formative

English

WOTD – 5 October 2024

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈfɔːmətɪv/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈfɔɹmətɪv/, [-ɾɪv]
• Hyphenation: form‧at‧ive

Etymology 1

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.

Adjective

formative (comparative more formative, superlative most formative)

1. Capable of forming something.

   Synonyms: (archaic) creant, poietic

   Antonym: unformative

   • 1614, John Selden, “The Preface”, in Titles of Honor, London: […] William Stansby for Iohn Helme, […], →OCLC, signature [b4], recto:

     [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; […]

   • 1866, Charles Darwin, “Hybridism”, in On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, […], 4th edition, London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 293:

     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.

   1. (biology) Capable of producing new tissue.
   2. (linguistic morphology) Pertaining to the formation of words; specifically, of an affix: forming words through inflection.
2. Of or pertaining to the formation and subsequent growth of something.

   Antonym: unformative

   My formative years were spent in an inner city.

3. (education) Of a form of assessment: used to guide learning rather than to quantify educational outcomes.

   Coordinate term: summative

Derived terms

• formatively
• formativeness
• neoformative
• neuroformative
• postformative
• preformative
• reformative
• unformative
• vasoformative

 

Translations

capable of forming something

• Finnish: muotoaja
• Galician: please add this translation if you can
• Indonesian: formatif (id)
• Latin: operātīvus
• Polish: twórczy (pl)

capable of producing new tissue

• Finnish: kudosta muodostava
• Galician: please add this translation if you can

pertaining to the formation of words

• Finnish: formatiivinen, sanojen muodostukseen liittyvä
• Galician: please add this translation if you can
• Indonesian: formatif (id)
• Russian: словообразующий (ru) (slovoobrazujuščij)

of or pertaining to the formation and subsequent growth of something

• Catalan: formatiu (ca)
• Finnish: kehitys-, kasvu-, muovaava
• French: formatif (fr), formateur (fr)
• Galician: please add this translation if you can
• Georgian: წარმომქმნელი (c̣armomkmneli)
• German: bildend (de)
• Indonesian: formatif (id)
• Italian: formativo (it), formatore (it)
• Polish: twórczy (pl)
• Romanian: formativ (ro)
• Russian: образова́тельный (ru) (obrazovátelʹnyj)
• Spanish: formativo (es), formador (es)
• Swedish: formativ
• Ukrainian: please add this translation if you can

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

• Finnish: formatiivinen, oppimisen
• Galician: please add this translation if you can
• Indonesian: formatif (id)

See also

• formulative
• informative

Etymology 2

Sense 1 (“thing which causes formation to occur”) is derived from the noun.

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).

Noun

formative (plural formatives)

2. A thing which causes formation to occur.
   • 1907, John Galsworthy, “The Happy Hunting-ground”, in The Country House, London: William Heinemann, →OCLC, part I, page 33:

     [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.'

3. (linguistic morphology)
   2. A language unit, typically a morph, that has a morphological function (that is, forming a word from a root or another word).

      Synonyms: formans, formant

      Hyponym: affix

   3. Synonym of derivative (“a word that derives from another one”)

      Synonyms: descendant, reflex

Translations

thing which causes formation to occur

• Finnish: muotoaja
• Galician: please add this translation if you can

language unit that has a morphological function

• Dutch: please add this translation if you can
• French: formans (fr) m, formant (fr) m
• Finnish: formatiivi
• Galician: please add this translation if you can
• German: Formativ (de) n, Formans n
• Indonesian: formatif (id)
• Japanese: please add this translation if you can
• Polish: formant m
• Portuguese: please add this translation if you can
• Russian: формати́в (ru) m (formatív), форма́нт (ru) m (formánt)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: фо̀рмант m

  Roman: fòrmant (sh) m

• Spanish: please add this translation if you can
• Ukrainian: please add this translation if you can

synonym of derivative — see derivative

Further reading

• formative assessment on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Italian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /for.maˈti.ve/
• Rhymes: -ive
• Hyphenation: for‧ma‧tì‧ve

Adjective

formative

1. feminine plural of formativo

Anagrams

• formatevi