preformant

/pɹiːˈfɔːm(ə)nt/

Etymology

From pre- (prefix meaning ‘before; physically in front of’) + Latin fōrmāns (“fashioning, forming, shaping”) + -ant (suffix forming agent nouns from verbs), modelled after prefix. Fōrmāns is the present participle of fōrmō (“to fashion, form, format, shape”), from fōrma (“appearance, figure, form, shape; beauty; design, outline, plan; model, mould, pattern, stamp; (figuratively) kind, manner, sort”) (further etymology uncertain) + -ō (suffix forming first-conjugation verbs).

preformant means chiefly in Semitic languages: Synonym of preformative (“a formative letter, syllable, etc., at the beginning of a word”). Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.

noun

Chiefly in Semitic languages: Synonym of preformative (“a formative letter, syllable, etc., at the beginning of a word”).“Verbs are declined through the persons by preformants and terminations, according to the following table, in which the blanks represent the radicals of a perfect verb.”