funditus

Forms

funditus (not comparable)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from fundus (“bottom”) with the adverbial suffix -itus.^[2][1][3] De Vaan traces ⟨fundus⟩ to Proto-Italic *fundo- and Proto-Indo-European *bʰudʰnó- (“bottom”), with metathesis of the nasal, and compares Sanskrit बुध्न (budhná-, “bottom”), Ancient Greek πυθμήν (puthmḗn, “bottom”) and Old English botem.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan gives Plautus as its first author.^[3] In the Bacchides a young man cries to his friend “you have utterly ruined me” (perdidistī mē … funditus).^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is “from the foundations”, of buildings and cities razed to the ground, as the monument of Scipio that Verres utterly destroyed (Cicero), of plants and hair pulled out by the roots (Phaedrus), and of things rising from the depths (Lucretius).^[2][4] Lucretius also uses it for “at the bottom”.^[2] Most often it means “utterly, completely”, with words of ruin and removal, and also in other contexts, as Ennius' household gods who care for the house entirely.^[2]

Church Latin glosses it “completely, utterly, totally, from the foundation”.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of utter ruin.^[2][3][6]
• 204–169 BC – Ennius of complete care.^[2][6]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of “from the depths”.^[2][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a monument razed.^[2][6]

Meanings

Adverb

1. From the foundations; by the roots; from the depths.^[2][1][4]
2. At the bottom.^[2]
3. Utterly, completely, entirely.^[2][1][5]

Related words

• fundus
• fundāmentum
• radīcitus

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de