de'forme' or difforme?

are both used for the english word "deformed?" Tx

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Permalink Reply by Chantal Savignat on March 1, 2018 at 9:48pm

I don't know, but to explain when and how are used these words :

Déformé = when a thing is altered. It's just an observation : the thing is not regular. Mes chaussures sont vieilles, elles sont déformées. La chaussée est déformée. Cet arbre est déformé.

Difforme = when a thing is altered and ugly, this idea of ugly or even just unpleasant is important for "difforme". Sometimes it's used for persons. Do you know the story "Notre Dame de Paris" ? Quasimodo may be considered as "difforme".

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Permalink Reply by alan gould on March 1, 2018 at 10:00pm

ok. it makes sense. in english we would just use it in the ugly sense. yes, quasimodo was deformed. but if something is merely different in form, it's not deformed. it would just b said to b "irregular." "misshapen or malformed would mean it was supposed to b shaped a certain way and it came out differently. but it might not b ugly. "deformed" connotes ugly.