Pl. formulæ, -as. [a. L. formula, dim. of forma FORM sb. Cf. F. formule.]
1. A set form of words in which something is defined, stated, or declared, or which is prescribed by authority or custom to be used on some ceremonial occasion.
[1581. E. Campion, in Confer., IV. (1584), Ee ij b. The Formula of the second covenant, is Christ. Charke. You vnderstand not … what Formula is.]
a. 1638. Mede, Wks. (1672), I. xxii. 83. What is the meaning of this Formula [of the Jews—‘Let his memory be blessed’]?
1685. Lond. Gaz., No. 2031/2. The Lord Register reading the Formula, the Lyon king at Arms … Fenced the High Court of Parliament.
1723. Act 9 Geo. I., c. 24 § 8. All Papists … shall … make and subscribe the Declaration called the Formula, as the same is recited in an Act of Parliament of Scotland [of 1700].
1752. J. Louthian, Form of Process (ed. 2), 51. Before inclosing of the Assize, the Clerk, by Order of the Court, leaves a Formula with them for their Direction.
1791. Burke, Lett. to Sir H. Langrishe, Wks. 1842, I. 555. You have sent me several papers, some in print, some in manuscript. I think I had seen all of them, except the formula of association.
1798. Edgeworth, Pract. Educ. (1811), II. 23. The grammatical formulæ may then by gentle degrees be committed to memory, and when once got by heart they should be assiduously preserved in the recollection.
1844. H. H. Wilson, Brit. India, III. 318. From this they proceeded to acts of aggravated violence, compelling all the villagers to profess adherence to their religious creed, and forcing the Brahmins especially to repeat the Mohammedan formula of faith, and to swallow beef.
1893. Speaker, 3 Sept., 293/2. He may dismiss the greater part of Mr. Huxley’s contention with the excellent scholastic formula Transeat; meaning either ‘Not proven,’ or ‘Nothing to the purpose.’
b. In recent use, after Carlyle, often applied more or less disparagingly, e.g., to rules unintelligently or slavishly followed, to fettering conventionalities of usage, to beliefs held or professed out of mere acquiescence in tradition, etc.
Carlyle’s use of the word was clearly suggested by the words used of Mirabeau by his father, ‘Il a humé toutes les formules.’ This really meant that M. had unreflectingly ‘swallowed’ the watchwords or cant phrases of his revolutionary friends; but Carlyle mistranslated humé by ‘swallowed up, made away with,’ and frequently alludes to the passage as thus misinterpreted. Carlyle’s use of formula, however, though suggested by a mistake, is in itself a very natural development from the ordinary sense.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., III. II. i. (1872), 58. Man lives not except with formulas; with customs, ways of doing and living.
1861. Kingsley, Lett. (1878), II. 132. You, and all men who try to speak what they believe, are naked men, fighting men quilted sevenfold in formulæ; and you fight at a disadvantage which is only not deadly.
1871. Earle, Philol. Eng. Tongue, § 649. As the man of formulas often directs, and sometimes practically determines the action of his superior, so metre exercises a sort of judicature even over rhythm.
1874. H. R. Reynolds, John Bapt., IV. iv. 252. They [the Pharisees] consolidated the religious system of their fathers, elaborated into detail the principles of the Mosaic code, and bound the religious life of their disciples with ever stiffening formulæ which left no room for the free play of the conscience or the heart.
2. A prescription or detailed statement of ingredients; a recipe.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Formula … Physician’s Prescription, or Bill appointing Medicines to be prepar’d by an Apothecary.
1792. W. Yonge, in Beddoes, Calculus (1793), 34. I am very glad to hear of your intention to publish your formula, with observations on the soda.
1801. Med. Jrnl., V. June, 546. My formula has been, the tincture joined with the dec. lin. so as to administer from fifteen to twenty or thirty drops to children, and even fifty to adults, twice or thrice within the twenty-four hours.
1830. M. Donovan, Dom. Econ., I. 293. White Currant Wine May be made according to the same formula.
3. a. Math. A rule or principle expressed in algebraic symbols.
1796. Kirwan, Elem. Min. (ed. 2), I. Preface, p. vi. The great art of analysis, extended far beyond its former limits, now nearly reaches the precision of an algebraic formula.
1836. Emerson, Nature, Idealism, Wks. (Bohn), II. 163. In physics, when this is attained, the memory disburthens itself of its cumbrous catalogues of particulars, and carries centuries of observation in a single formula.
1850. Daubeny, Atomic Theory, v. (ed. 2), 156. Avogadro indeed has proposed a general formula for calculating the specific heat of each class of compounds.
1864. Bowen, Logic, i. 25. The algebraist easily recalls to mind a few brief formulas, which enable him to perform almost mechanically long numerical computations, which the mere arithmetician must slowly and painfully think out step by step.
b. Chem. An expression of the constituents of a compound by means of symbols and figures.
1846. G. E. Day, trans. Simon’s Anim. Chem., II. 480. If … the formulæ for the morbid deposits are calculated in relation to C48, their connexion with the formula for protein will be more obvious to the eye.
1853. W. Gregory, Inorg. Chem. (ed. 4), 409. So that M R is the general formula for a monobasic salt.
1881. Williamson, in Nature, No. 618. 1 Sept., 414/2. Thus chlorocarbonic acid was represented as a compound of carbonic acid with carbonic chloride, and was accordingly designated as carbonate of carbonic chloride, while the formula was made to contain the formulæ of those bodies.
c. In general scientific use, a group of symbols and figures containing a condensed tabulation of certain facts. Dental formula: see DENTAL. Hence sometimes used for the set of facts that might be expressed by a formula.
1855. Bain, The Senses and the Intellect, II. iv. § 9. Each species of animal has its particular formula of ordering the legs in walking, determined it may be in part by the shape of the body, but duly transmitted in the breed as a property of its structure.
