found

Pronunciation

• IPA: /faʊnd/^[1]

Etymology

The verb meaning “to establish” is inherited from Middle English founden, borrowed from Old French fonder (“to found, establish”),^[2][3][4] from Latin fundāre (“to lay the bottom or foundation of”),^[2][3] from fundus (“bottom, foundation”).^[4][3][5] Merriam-Webster gives the Anglo-French forms Anglo-Norman funder, fonder.^[6] The verb meaning “to cast metal” is a different word: Middle English founden (“to mix”), borrowed from Middle French fondre (“to pour out, melt, mix together”),^[2][7] from Latin fundere (“to melt, pour”),^[3][4][2] from a nasalized form of Proto-Indo-European *gheu- (“to pour”).^[3][8][9] Its cognates include Old English ġēotan (“to pour”), German gießen, Gothic 𐌲𐌹𐌿𐍄𐌰𐌽 (giutan, “to pour”) and Ancient Greek χεῖν (kheîn, “to pour”).^[8][7][5] The adjective found is the past participle of find.^[10][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To build (a town or edifice) for the first time, about 1290;^[2][11] by about 1300 also to set up an institution and to base something immaterial on a firm ground.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Old French fonder had a wider range than the English verb, “to found, establish; set, place; fashion, make”.^[3] In English the literal sense of laying the foundations of a building came to be used figuratively of institutions, especially ones set up with provision for their lasting maintenance.^[11][10] Between 1377 and 1622 found could also mean to endow persons who were to carry out some function.^[12] Johnson (1755) gave the senses “to lay the basis of any building”, “to build, to raise” and “to establish, to erect”.^[13] An intransitive use, to base oneself or one's opinion on something, is chiefly Scottish and dates from the 1830s.^[12][10] The phrase founding fathers, of the creators of the American republic, is attested from 1916.^[3] The casting verb first meant “to mix, mingle” (before 1399), and only from 1562 “to melt and cast metal”;^[2][3][7] its use for glass dates from the late 18th century.^[11][10] Of the participle, well found “equipped” is recorded from 1793 in the OED,^[11][6] while the phrase and found in old advertisements meant that meals were provided, from the phrase to find oneself, “to provide for oneself”, which Bartlett explained in 1848.^[3] In the 20th century found was applied to art objects taken unaltered from their surroundings, after French objet trouvé,^[11][10] and since 1966 to poetry made from rearranged prose.^[11][12]

Timeline

• c. 1290 – founden, to build for the first time.^[2][11]
• c. 1300 – to establish an institution; to base something immaterial.^[11]
• 1377–1622 – to endow (obsolete).^[12]
• c. 1380 – found as an adjective, discovered.^[11]
• before 1399 – founden, to mix or mingle.^[2]
• 1562 – to melt and cast metal.^[2][6][11]
• 1782 – to make glass by fusing.^[11]
• 1793 – well found, equipped.^[11][6]
• 1830 – as a noun, board and lodging in addition to wages.^[6]
• 1916 – founding fathers.^[3]
• 1966 – found poetry.^[11][12]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To set up or establish (an institution, organization or town), often with provision for its continuing existence.
2. To base on something; to ground: a story founded on fact.
3. To lay the foundation of a building; to begin to build.
4. To melt metal and pour it into a mould; to make an object in this way; to cast.
5. To melt the materials for glass; to make glass by fusing them.

Adjective

1. Equipped or fitted out: a well-found ship.
2. (art) Of an object, collected in its natural state and presented as part of a work of art: found objects.
3. (Britain) With meals and other services included at no extra charge, especially in all found.

Noun

1. Free food and lodging given in addition to wages.

Word family

• foundling
• unfound
• newfound
• well-found
• cofound
• refound
• found art
• found object

Related words

• foundation
• founder
• confound
• foundry
• foison
• fusion
• fund
• fundamental
• profound
• fuse
• refund
• find

Usage notes

The American Heritage Dictionary groups found with create, establish, institute and organize, all meaning to bring something into being and set it working.^[14] Found is also the past tense and past participle of find.^[14][6]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b c d e Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin