fundament

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English foundement, also fundement and fondement,^[2][3][4][5] borrowed from Anglo-Norman fundament, also foundement, beside Old French fondement,^[6][7][8] and in part directly borrowed from Latin fundāmentum (“foundation, basis”).^[6][4] The Latin noun is formed from fundō (“to lay the foundation, found”) and -mentum,^[6][9] the verb coming from fundus (“bottom”).^[2][3] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster Unabridged see the present spelling as a later alteration after the Latin word, replacing Middle English fundement and fondement;^[4][3][10] Hoad places the latinized forms in the 14th century.^[5] The Anglo-Norman noun is recorded from the first third of the 12th century.^[11] Compare Spanish fundamento, Italian fondamento, German Fundament and Dutch fundament.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The lowest part or foundation of a wall or building: about 1300, in the Vision of Saint Paul.^[6] Barnhart also dates fundement and fondement to about 1300, and the present form to 1380.^[4] Etymonline puts both "foundation" and "buttocks, anus" in the late 13th century,^[7] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Collins give the 13th century.^[3][12]

Semantic evolution

The bodily sense did not develop in English: French had "anus, buttocks" and "rump of an animal" from the early 12th century, as early as "foundation of a building", and British medieval Latin used the word for the anus from the 12th century.^[6] Weekley likewise notes that the anatomical sense is as early as the general one,^[13] and in English it is recorded from about 1325, in Robert of Gloucester's chronicle.^[6] Etymonline explains it as the part on which one sits.^[7] The figurative use followed by the 1380s, in the Wycliffite Bible,^[6] where Proverbs speaks of the foundemens of the erthe,^[13] and "basic principle" by 1395.^[6] The sense "foundation" then grew rare; the Shorter Oxford ends it in the late 17th century,^[8] though Galt still has a kirk built from the fundament in Scots in 1822, and the English Dialect Dictionary labels this obsolete.^[14] Johnson (1755) gives only "the back part of the body",^[15] which by now is chiefly archaic or humorous.^[6][12][16] Two technical senses came later: in embryology from 1892, partly after German Anlage and Grundlage,^[6] and in geography from 1928, of land as it was before people altered it.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – the lowest part or foundation of a building.^[6]
• c. 1325 – the anus or buttocks.^[6]
• before 1382 – figurative, something that gives firm support, in the Wycliffite Bible.^[6]
• 1395 – a fundamental principle, a basis.^[6][17]
• 1440 – the act of founding something; an institution (obsolete by 1600).^[6][17]
• 1892 – in embryology, the first group of cells of an organ or part.^[6]
• 1928 – in geography, land before people changed it.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. (humorous) The buttocks or anus: She settled her ample fundament on the bench.^{[12][16][2][6]}
2. An underlying theory, principle or basis.^{[12][2][3][6]}
3. The foundation of a building.^[12][2][16]
4. (geography) The natural features of a land surface as they were before people altered them.^{[12][2][8][3]}
5. (embryology) The earliest group of cells that will form an organ or part; an anlage or primordium.^[6][3]
6. (obsolete, 1440–1600) The act of founding something, or a thing founded.^[6][8]

Related words

• fundamental
• foundation
• found
• fund
• fundus
• bottom

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
12. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ a b c Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
17. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)