fondo

Forms

fondo m (plural fondi)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin fundus (“bottom; farm, estate”), and both Latin senses live on.^[2][3][4][1] The word is found in all the Romance languages: French fond (beside fonds), Occitan fons, Spanish hondo, Portuguese fundo, Sardinian fundu and Romanian fund.^[3][5][6] In Italian, Spanish and Portuguese it is also an adjective, “deep”.^[3][5] DELI finds the link between the noun and the adjective not entirely clear and thinks the adjective grew out of the noun under the influence of profondo, while the GDLI and Devoto speak of a cross with Latin profundus (“deep”).^[2][7][8]

The Latin noun goes back through Proto-Italic *fundo- to Proto-Indo-European *bʰudʰnó- (“bottom”), with the nasal moved forward.^[9][1] Its relatives are Sanskrit बुध्न (budhná, “bottom, root”), Ancient Greek πυθμήν (puthmḗn, “bottom”) and Old High German bodam (“ground”), whence German Boden, and Old English botm, whence English bottom.^[9][3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is Dante (before 1321), for the lowest part of something: “In questo fondo della trista conca / discende mai alcun del primo grado…?” (Does anyone of the first circle ever come down into the bottom of this dismal hollow?).^[2][7] GRADIT dates the word to before 1313.^[4] Dante also has the adjective “thick, dense”, in “per la selva fonda” (through the thick wood).^[2][10]

Semantic evolution

Domenico Cavalca (before 1342) uses the noun for the innermost, hidden part of something, and Busone da Gubbio (before 1349) has the adjective “deep”.^[2] Later senses are the background of a picture (1550, Vasari), what is left in a vessel (before 1564), a piece of land (1565, Ramusio), money set aside for a purpose (1593) and the far end of a place (before 1712, Magalotti).^[2] Carducci uses fondo for a newspaper's leading article (1875); the long-distance race appears in 1935 and background noise in 1970.^[2]

Fondiario “of landed property” translates French foncier.^[2] The fondi di carciofo, artichoke bottoms, are a Venetian dish.^[2] Ottoman Turkish borrowed the word for “capital”.^[11][1] Common phrases are andare a fondo “to sink; to fail”, in fondo “after all”, toccare il fondo “to hit rock bottom” and a notte fonda “in the dead of night”.^[12][13][14]

Timeline

• Before 1313 – Fondo is first recorded.^[4]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses the noun “bottom” and the adjective “dense”.^[2]
• Before 1342 – Domenico Cavalca uses it for the innermost part of something.^[2]
• Before 1349 – Busone da Gubbio uses the adjective “deep”.^[2]
• 1550 – Giorgio Vasari uses it for the background of a picture.^[2]
• 1565 – Giovanni Battista Ramusio uses it for a piece of land.^[2]
• 1593 – Tuscan edicts use it for a fund of money.^[2]
• 1797 – Fondiario is recorded at Venice.^[2]
• 1875 – Carducci uses it for a newspaper's leading article.^[2]
• 1935 – Corsa di fondo “long-distance race” is recorded.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The bottom, the lowest part of something hollow: Ho trovato le chiavi in fondo alla borsa.^{[4][13][15][1]}
2. The bed of a sea, lake or river: La nave è andata a fondo.^[4][15][14]
3. The far end of a place: La camera è in fondo a destra.^[15][13]
4. What is left in a container; dregs: i fondi del caffè.^[4][13][12]
5. A background, a base colour: un tessuto a fiori su fondo verde.^[15][1]
6. A piece of land, an estate: fondo rustico.^[15][1][2]
7. A fund; in the plural, money available: Il comune non ha i fondi per riparare la strada.^[15][1][2]
8. (sports) A long-distance race: sci di fondo.^[15][1][2]
9. (cooking) A stock of meat or fish.^[12][1]

Adjective

1. Deep: piatto fondo.^[13][14][1]
2. (literary) Thick, dense; of night, late: a notte fonda.^[13][14]

Word family

• fondale
• fondello
• fondiario
• fondina
• fondista
• fondovalle
• fondotinta
• fondoschiena
• affondare
• sfondare
• sfondo
• sottofondo
• mezzofondo

Related words

• profondo
• fondare
• Latin fundus
• English bottom

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
7. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ 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
10. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET, p. 2, 860
11. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1681
12. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
14. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse