fondo

Forms

fondo m (plural fondos)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish fondo, inherited from Latin fundus (“bottom; landed estate”).^[2][3][1] In the Middle Ages the noun was much less used than its derivative hondón; when it came back into general use in the 16th century under the influence of Latin, it was given the form with ⟨f⟩, which kept it apart from the adjective hondo, the regular outcome with Latin /f/ turned into ⟨h⟩.^[2][1] Wiktionary gives the same reason for the kept ⟨f⟩, and names a second doublet, fundo “rural estate”, a learned borrowing of the 17th century.^[1][2]

The same Latin noun gave Portuguese fundo, Galician fondo, Catalan fons, French fond, Italian fondo and Romanian fund.^[4][5] Coromines explains the final -s of the Catalan and French forms: in late imperial Latin the noun became a neuter whose accusative also ended in -s.^[6][7]

The Latin word goes back to Proto-Italic *fundo- and Proto-Indo-European *bʰudʰ-n-ó- (“bottom”), probably an old genitive of *bʰudʰ-men-.^[8] Its cognates include Ancient Greek πυθμήν (puthmḗn, “bottom, depth, root”) and the English word bottom.^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the noun to 1220–1250.^[2] An early clear record is in Alfonso X's Lapidario (c. 1250), where certain shells close at night and go al fondo del agua “to the bottom of the water”.^[9][10] The Libro de Alexandre (1240–1250, in an early 15th-century copy) says the river Hydaspes is immense en ancho e en fondo “in breadth and in depth”, and the Moamín (1250) has a pit de dos cobdos en fondo “two cubits deep”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose already used the word for the lowest part of a hollow thing, for the bed of the sea or a river, and for the underside of an object, and his laws have de fondo “entirely, from the ground up”.^[9] Covarrubias in 1611 records the naval phrases echar a fondo “to sink a ship” and dar fondo “to drop anchor”, and the weavers' use of fondo for the plain ground beneath raised patterns.^[11] The Diccionario de Autoridades defined it as the bottom of a hollow thing able to hold a liquid, the depth of the sea, and the ground of a fabric.^[12]

The Academy's 1884 edition added the depth of a building from front to back, the thickness of a diamond, and the wealth of a person or community, the starting point of the modern sense “funds”.^[13][3] Today the word also names a person's character, the substance of a matter as opposed to its form, the money staked in common in a game and the holdings of a library.^[3] In Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Colombia, Venezuela and Bolivia fondo is a woman's slip worn under a dress; in Chile it is a large cooking pot, and in the Southern Cone and elsewhere an inner or back patio.^[14]

Timeline

• 1220–1250 – Corominas's date for the first record of the noun.^[2]
• 1240–1250 – the Libro de Alexandre uses en fondo “in depth” (in an early 15th-century copy).^[10]
• c. 1250 – Alfonso X's Lapidario speaks of the bottom of the water.^[9][10]
• 1277 – Alfonso X's astronomical works use the word for the underside of an instrument's plates.^[9]
• 1532 – an early record from the Americas: a letter from Mexico on sounding a river's depth.^[15]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records echar a fondo and dar fondo.^[11]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades quotes Cervantes on Don Quixote let down al fondo de la caverna.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy adds the sense “wealth, capital of a person or community”.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. The lowest part of a hollow thing: bottom: Quedó arena en el fondo del cubo.^[3][1]
2. The solid ground under a body of water: the bed of the sea, a river or a well.^[3][1]
3. depth (hondura).^[3]
4. The depth of a building from front to back.^[3][16]
5. The part farthest from the entrance or from a point of reference: the back or far end of a corridor or street.^[3][1]
6. The colour or pattern of a surface against which other figures stand out: background.^[3]
7. The wealth or assets of a person or community;^[1] (usually in the plural) money, funds.^[3][1]
8. A person's nature or character.^[3]
9. The substance of a matter, as opposed to its form.^[3]
10. The money staked in common in a game; the holdings of printed books and manuscripts of a library.^[3]
11. (Mexico, Dominican Republic, Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia) A woman's slip worn under a dress.^[14]

Word family

• fondillón
• trasfondo
• fondear
• fondeadero
• fondillos
• fondón
• desfondar

Related words

• fundar
• hondo
• profundo
• fundo
• Latin fundus

Usage notes

The DLE also has an adjective fondo “deep”, now out of use, which it derives from an Old Spanish *perfondo, from Latin profundus.^[3] Echar a fondo “to sink (a ship)” and dar fondo “to anchor” are old naval phrases.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. hondo
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. fondo
4. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
6. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 4, 94
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c d Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. fondo
10. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE
11. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 859
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 775
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 503
14. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer
15. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies
16. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos