Etymologically
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fungus

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈfʌŋ.ɡəs/[1]

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

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