Etymology

formant

F4O1R1M3A1N1T1

Today it means: A band of frequencies in a sound spectrum that have greater intensity and determine the quality of a sound, especially the resonant frequencies of the vocal tract that determine the quality of vowels and sonorant consonants. Full definition →

German Formant ← Latin fōrmāns
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The story

  1. Latin · derived fromfōrmāns“shaping; forming; fashioning”
  2. German · borrowed fromFormant
  3. English todayformant

Borrowed from German Formant, from Latin fōrmāns (“shaping; forming; fashioning”), present participle of fōrmō (“to shape; to form; to fashion”). Doublet of formans.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.