Translation
uniform (the clothing)
Word origin
From Latin uniformis, of one form, built from unus, one, and forma, shape. The clothing sense came through French uniforme in the eighteenth century, when armies started dressing their regiments alike.
- Origin
- Latin, via French
- Root
- unus + forma
- English cognates
- uniform, unify
Examples
.
The soldiers wore blue uniforms.
.
The children do not wear a uniform at our school.
.
His uniform was clean and new.
Here is a seam that is real in Latin and false in Esperanto, which is the
trickiest kind. The word genuinely was built from unus plus forma, one
shape, and the meaning follows perfectly: everybody wearing the same thing. But
that building happened in Latin, centuries before Esperanto existed, and the
word arrived here whole.
The proof is in the pieces. Esperanto has formo, so
half the parse works, but the other half does not: - is not an Esperanto
morpheme. The number one is , and a word built inside the language would
have to say unuforma, which in fact exists and means uniform in the sense of
unvarying, all of one kind. So you get two words from the same Latin idea:
unuforma built here, imported ready-made. This is the
inspiri class, where the international word carries
a derivation that Esperanto could have performed itself and did not need to.
In practice is the garment: the soldier's, the nurse's, the
schoolchild's. For the abstract sense use unuforma or a, and note that
uniforma also circulates for uniform in the mathematical or statistical
sense.
Where this fits
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uniformo: worksheet, infographic and listicle
Free printable study downloads for the Esperanto word "uniformo" (uniform (the clothing)): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.
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Start your free weekThis word is part of lesson 41.