μορφή

Ancient Greek

Of unclear origin:^[1]

Many attempts have been made to connect it with Latin fōrma (“form”) (see there for theory of its origin), but the proposed relationship is problematic. Beekes suggests that the Latin was either loaned from Greek via an intermediary like Etruscan, or that the Latin and Greek were both inherited from a Proto-Indo-European *mergʷʰ-, with the Latin undergoing metathesis > *gʷʰerm- > *gʷʰorm- > *form-.
An alternative relationship has been proposed with Baltic terms like Latgalian mārga (“daughter, lass”) and Lithuanian mergà (“girl”), with a semantic shift "shape" > "lovely shape" > "girl".^[2] If so, then the Greek and Baltic terms are from, per Beekes, a Proto-Indo-European *mergʷʰ-h₂-, with the Greek deriving from an o-grade. However, the Baltic terms are more commonly derived from a root *mer- (“young boy, girl”) (whence Latin marītus (“husband”)), making this theory doubtful.

μορφή • (morphḗ) f (genitive μορφῆς); first declension

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ἡ μορφή hē morphḗ	τὼ μορφᾱ́ tṑ morphā́	αἱ μορφαί hai morphaí
Genitive	τῆς μορφῆς tês morphês	τοῖν μορφαῖν toîn morphaîn	τῶν μορφῶν tôn morphôn
Dative	τῇ μορφῇ têi morphêi	τοῖν μορφαῖν toîn morphaîn	ταῖς μορφαῖς taîs morphaîs
Accusative	τὴν μορφήν tḕn morphḗn	τὼ μορφᾱ́ tṑ morphā́	τᾱ̀ς μορφᾱ́ς tā̀s morphā́s
Vocative	μορφή morphḗ	μορφᾱ́ morphā́	μορφαί morphaí
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “μορφή”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 969-70
^ Wojciech Smoczyński (2021) “mergà”, in Słownik etymologiczny języka litewskiego

μορφή • (morfí) f (plural μορφές)