fungus

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin fungus (“mushroom, toadstool”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} and replaced the earlier funge (“mushroom”), recorded before 1398, which was borrowed from Old French fonge.^[4][3] The Latin word is usually linked with Ancient Greek σφόγγος (sphóngos), the Attic form of σπόγγος (spóngos, “sponge”), the source of sponge.^{[3][7][6][8][9]} Klein derives it from the Greek word,^[7] but the OED and Merriam-Webster take both as probably borrowed from a non-Indo-European language, which also gave an Armenian word for mushroom,^[2][5] and Etymonline quotes de Vaan for the same view.^[3] In Latin it also meant the mildew on a lamp wick and, figuratively, a fool or blockhead.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A mushroom or toadstool: 1527, in L. Andrewe's translation of H. Brunschwig's Vertuose Boke.^[2][4][5] Etymonline describes it as a learned alternative to mushroom at first,^[3] and Ayto as a more all-embracing one.^[9]

Semantic evolution

From a word for a mushroom, fungus was widened to the whole group of organisms of which mushrooms are only the fruiting bodies, including moulds, mildews, rusts and yeasts.^[2][10][9] Medicine took it over in the 17th century for a mass of brain tissue pushing through the skull (1634) and for a spongy growth on the body (1661),^[2][11] a use already found in post-classical Latin.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as strictly a mushroom, and as a word for excrescences on wounds or on trees.^[12] From 1659 a person or thing could be called a fungus for being unpleasant, excrescent or short-lived,^[2] and in slang it meant an unpleasant person from 1782.^[13] A man's beard has been called fungus since 1904,^[2] probably short for face fungus.^[14] The verb, to become covered with fungus, is recorded from 1893.^[2][5]

Timeline

• before 1398 – the earlier funge, a mushroom.^[4]
• 1527 – a mushroom or toadstool.^[2][4][5]
• 1634 – medicine, a mass of brain tissue protruding through the skull.^[2]
• 1659 – a person or thing likened to a fungus.^[2]
• 1661 – a spongy growth on the body.^[2]
• 1782 – slang, an unpleasant person.^[13]
• 1880 – a disease of fish with white woolly growths.^[2]
• 1893 – verb, to become covered with fungus.^[2]
• 1904 – colloquial, a man's beard.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (plural fungi or funguses) Any of a large group of organisms that lack chlorophyll, reproduce by spores, and live on dead or living matter, including moulds, mildews, rusts, yeasts and mushrooms.^[10][5][2]
2. Something that grows or spreads suddenly and rapidly, like a fungus.^[10][2]
3. (medicine) A soft, spongy growth on the body.^[10][2]
4. (colloquial) A man's beard or facial hair.^[2][14]

Verb

1. To become covered with or infected by fungus: The stored seed potatoes had fungused over the winter.^[5][2]

Word family

• funguslike
• fungal
• fungicidal
• fungicide
• fungoid
• microfungus

Related words

• fungous
• sponge
• funge

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
14. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press