- formula
- 1630s, from L. formula "form, rule, method, formula," lit. "small form," dim. of forma "form." Originally, "words used in a ceremony or ritual." Modern sense is colored by Carlyle's use of the word for "rule slavishly followed without understanding" (1837).
"Men who try to speak what they believe, are naked men fighting men quilted sevenfold in formulae." [Charles Kingsley, "Letters," 1861]