fundamento

Forms

fundamento m (plural fundamentos)^[1] Old Spanish wrote fundamiento as well as fundamento.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin fundāmentum (“foundation, basis”), recorded from the middle of the 13th century.^[5][1][6][7] The Latin noun is formed from the verb fundō (“to lay the foundations”) with the suffix -mentum.^[8][1][9] The verb comes from fundus (“bottom”), which de Vaan explains as a metathesis of Proto-Indo-European *bʰudʰnó-.^[10]

Corominas treats it with fundar and fondo in the family of hondo.^[6] The same Latin word is Portuguese fundamento, Catalan fonament, French fondement, recorded from 1119, and Italian fondamento.^[3][11][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest hit is in Berceo's Loores de Nuestra Señora (1236–1246, in an 18th-century copy), which calls Christ the foundation stone: mas fue tu fijo, Madre, piedra de fundamiento, “but your son, Mother, was the foundation stone”.^[4] The first hit without a later copy is Herman the German's translation of the Psalter (c. 1240–1272).^[4]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose already uses it for a principle or root, as when faith is called fundamiento & rayz de todo bien, “foundation and root of all good”, and also for the anus and, of birds, the cloaca.^[13] The anatomical sense continues the Late Latin medical use of the word for the buttocks and anus.^[14] A 1549 text from Santo Domingo still uses it so, and in Mexico and Central America it is a humorous euphemism for the buttocks.^[15][16]

Autoridades gives the foundation of a building, the root or principle of something immaterial, and the reason or pretext on which something rests.^[17] The sense “seriousness, reliability”, said of people, is recorded in the Canaries in 1744, and the Academy's 1884 dictionary includes it with the ground or weft of fabrics.^[18][19] In Colombia fundamento was a woman's skirt of baize, an alteration of faldamento.^[20][21]

Timeline

• 1236–1246 – Berceo's piedra de fundamiento “foundation stone”.^[4]
• c. 1250 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it for the anus.^[13][22]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin fundamentum and fundamen.^[23]
• 1549 – the first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[15]
• 1744 – the sense “seriousness” in a Canarian diary.^[18]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary lists the sense “seriousness, formality” of persons.^[19]

Meanings

Noun

1. The foundation or base on which a building or other thing rests.^[5][1][24]
2. Seriousness, reliability of a person: Es un chico sin fundamento.^[5][24]
3. The main reason or grounds for something: La denuncia carecía de fundamento.^[5][1][24]
4. The root, principle or origin of something immaterial; in the plural, the basic elements of a science or art.^[5][24]
5. The ground or weft of a fabric.^[5]
6. (Mexico, Central America, humorous) The buttocks.^[16]

Word family

• fundamentar
• fundamental

Related words

• fundar
• fondo
• hondo
• profundo
• Latin fundāmentum

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. fundamento
3. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3579
4. ^ 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, p. s.v. fundamento
5. ^ a b c d e f 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. fundamento
6. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. hondo
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. fundamento
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. fundamento
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. fonament
12. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. fondement
13. ^ a b 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. fundamento
14. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. fundamento
15. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. fundamento
16. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. fundamento
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 812
18. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. fundamento
19. ^ 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. 514
20. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 423
21. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 656
22. ^ Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org, p. s.v. fundamento
23. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 355
24. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. fundamento