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Formative

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formative
(of tissues and cells in certain parts of an organism) capable of growth and differentiation
Formative 

a component of a word that is isolated when a word is divided into meaningful units, or morphemes, but that does not itself have any independent meaning. A formative may be used to connect morphemes in a word, as in the connecting vowel -o- in Russian compound words, for example, vod-o-voz (“water carrier”). Formatives also form stems with a regular morphophonemic structure; in Russian, for example, a jot is added to foreign stems ending in a front vowel, as in the adjectives šosse-j-nyj (“highway”) and čili-j-skij (“Chilean”). Formatives may also be used to impart a regular phonological structure to a word; in Bidjandjara, an Australian language, the formative -ra- is added to stems ending in a consonant, since words may not end in a consonant in this language. The term “formative” is sometimes used in a broader sense as a synonym of “affix.”
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I dare to say that a not large percentage of youths, in the formative stage of fifteen to seventeen, could have survived the stress of heavy drinking that I survived between my fifteenth and seventeenth years; that a not large percentage of men could have punished the alcohol I have punished in my manhood years and lived to tell the tale.
John Barleycorn by London, Jack View in context
The rebuffs that he had met at the hands of men, both black and white, had had their effect upon his mind while yet it was in a formative state, and easily influenced.
The Son Of Tarzan by Burroughs, Edgar Rice View in context
Sir James Chettam's mind was not fruitful in devices, but his growing anxiety to "act on Brooke," once brought close to his constant belief in Dorothea's capacity for influence, became formative, and issued in a little plan; namely, to plead Celia's indisposition as a reason for fetching Dorothea by herself to the Hall, and to leave her at the Grange with the carriage on the way, after making her fully aware of the situation concerning the management of the estate.
Middlemarch by Eliot, George View in context
 
 
 
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