Usage of The Terminology
In earlier works on mathematical logic (e.g. by Church), formulas referred to any strings of symbols and among these strings, well-formed formulas were the strings that followed the formation rules of (correct) formulas.
Several authors simply say formula. Modern usages (especially in the context of computer science with mathematical software such as model checkers, automated theorem provers, interactive theorem provers) tend to retain of the notion of formula only the algebraic concept and to leave the question of well-formedness, i.e. of the concrete string representation of formulas (using this or that symbol for connectives and quantifiers, using this or that parenthesizing convention, using Polish or infix notation, etc.) as a mere notational problem.
However, the expression well-formed formulas can still be found in various works, these authors using the name well-formed formula without necessarily opposing it to the old sense of formula as arbitrary string of symbols so that it is no longer common in mathematical logic to refer to arbitrary strings of symbols in the old sense of formulas.
The expression "well-formed formulas" (WFF) also pervaded in popular culture. Indeed, WFF is part of an esoteric pun used in the name of "WFF 'N PROOF: The Game of Modern Logic," by Layman Allen, developed while he was at Yale Law School (he was later a professor at the University of Michigan). The suite of games is designed to teach the principles of symbolic logic to children (in Polish notation). Its name is an echo of whiffenpoof, a nonsense word used as a cheer at Yale University made popular in The Whiffenpoof Song and The Whiffenpoofs.
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