inform

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈfɔɹm/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈfɔːm/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)m

From Middle English informen, enformen, borrowed from Old French enformer, informer (“to train, instruct, inform”), from Latin informare (“to shape, form, train, instruct, educate”), from in- (“into”) + forma (“form, shape”), equivalent to in- +‎ form.

• enform (obsolete)

inform (third-person singular simple present informs, present participle informing, simple past and past participle informed)

1. (archaic, transitive) To instruct, train (usually in matters of knowledge).
2. (transitive) To communicate knowledge to.
   • Spenser

     For he would learn their business secretly, / And then inform his master hastily.

   • Shakespeare

     I am informed thoroughly of the cause.

3. (intransitive) To impart information or knowledge.
4. To act as an informer; denounce.
5. (transitive) To give form or character to; to inspire (with a given quality); to affect, influence (with a pervading principle, idea etc.).
   • 2013 June 7, Gary Younge, “Hypocrisy lies at heart of Manning prosecution”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 18:

     WikiLeaks did not cause these uprisings but it certainly informed them. The dispatches revealed details of corruption and kleptocracy that many Tunisians suspected, but could not prove, and would cite as they took to the streets.

   His sense of religion informs everything he writes.

   • Dryden

     Let others better mould the running mass / Of metals, and inform the breathing brass.

   • Prior

     Breath informs this fleeting frame.

6. (obsolete, intransitive) To make known, wisely and/or knowledgeably.
7. (obsolete, transitive) To direct, guide.
8. (archaic, intransitive) To take form; to become visible or manifest; to appear.
   • Shakespeare

     It is the bloody business which informs / Thus to mine eyes.

• (communicate knowledge to (trans.)): acquaint, apprise, notify; See also Thesaurus:inform
• (act as informer): dob, name names, peach, snitch; See also Thesaurus:rat out
• (take form): materialize, take shape; See also Thesaurus:come into being

Latin informis

inform (not comparable)

1. Without regular form; shapeless; ugly; deformed.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Cotton to this entry?)

• F minor, Morfin, formin