Etymologically
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fundus

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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
  • 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).