Other forms: reformations
The Reformation is the sixteenth-century split that divided western Christianity. The Protestant Reformation, before the Reformation, Reformation England.
It began with Luther in 1517 and ended in a Europe of competing churches, and printing is what made it spread — the same argument had been made before and had not travelled. Lowercase, a reformation is any thorough reform. Note reform, from the Latin for shaping again.
1nounreformationThe sixteenth-century split in western Christianity.
“Martin Luther's protest in 1517 is usually seen as the start of the Reformation.”
reformation is a historical movement.
Latin reformatio comes from reformare, to shape again — re plus formare. Form and reform come from the same shaping.
Latin
reformatio — reform, change
Middle French
reformation
Middle English
reformacioun
English, today
reformation
Built from
From Middle English reformacioun, reformation, from Middle French reformation and Latin reformatio (“reform, change”), from refōrmō (“transform, reshape”), from re- + fōrmō (“shape, form”). by surface analysis, reform + -ation.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA