fundus

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈfʊn.dʊs]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈfun.dus]^[1]

Forms

fundus m (genitive fundī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *fundo-, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *bʰudʰnós (“bottom”).^[2][1] De Vaan explains the Latin form by a metathesis of *bʰudʰnó- to Italo-Celtic *bʰundʰó-, and takes the PIE word as probably the genitive of a noun *bʰudʰ-men-.^[2] Cognate with Sanskrit बुध्न (budhná, “bottom, root”), Ancient Greek πυθμήν (puthmḗn, “bottom, depth”), Old Norse botn and Old English botm (English bottom).^[2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus uses it, already of a farm: “don't make a path across the estate”.^[3][2] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it was the bottom of a vessel or of the sea, and in Cicero's proverb “largesse has no bottom” there is no end to giving.^[3][6] Fundō “from the foundations” meant utterly, and figuratively it was a basis, or a person who backs an arrangement.^[3] Above all it was a farm or country estate, in law any landed property, and in surveying a square of 120 feet.^[3][7] Döderlein distinguishes it as an estate, usually with a house, from villa, a country house, usually with land.^[8]

In medieval Latin it was the land of a township and an anchorage.^[9] It survives as Italian fondo, French fond and Spanish hondo.^[1] English fund came from French fond, at first “bottom, foundation”, and the money sense is from the 1690s.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a farm.^[3][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the bottom of a chest.^[7][5]
• 1670s – English fund is recorded as “a bottom, foundation”.^[4]
• 1754 – English fundus is recorded for the base of an organ.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The bottom, base, especially of a vessel; the depths of the sea or earth.^[3][7]
2. Ā fundō, fundō, from the foundations, utterly.^[3]
3. A basis, foundation; a person who supports an arrangement.^[3]
4. A country estate, farm, (law) landed property.^[3][1]
5. (surveying) A square of 120 by 120 feet.^[3]
6. (Medieval Latin) The land of a township; an anchorage.^[9]

Word family

• funditus
• fundō
• fundulum
• fundulus
• profundus
• domnifundus
• lātifundium
• solifundium

Related words

• fundāmen
• fundāmentum
• fundātiō
• fundātor
• fundātus
• English fund
• English foundation
• English profound
• English bottom

Usage notes

Isidore explains it as the land on which a family's property is founded.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
9. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
10. ^ Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).