fundo

Forms

fundo (feminine funda, masculine plural fundos, feminine plural fundas)^[1] Houaiss records fomdo (1077), fondo in the 13th century and fundo from the 14th.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin fundus (“bottom; a piece of land”), written Old Galician-Portuguese fondo and fundo in the oldest texts.^[2][3][4][1] Houaiss, Cunha and the REW take both the noun and the adjective from it; the REW notes that the Italian, Spanish and Portuguese words are also adjectives meaning “deep”.^[2][3][5] Cornu, quoted by Nascentes, explains the adjective instead as Latin profundus (“deep”) with the first syllable dropped, because pro- was felt as an intensive, and the DDGM's glossary of a text of 1253–1254 derives the word from the same Latin adjective.^[6][7] Corominas gives that explanation for Spanish hondo, through Old Spanish perfondo.^[8]

The same Latin noun is Galician fundo, French fond, Italian fondo and Romanian fund.^[5][1]

De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *fundo- and Proto-Indo-European *bʰudʰmḗn (“bottom”), from an older genitive form; the same word is Sanskrit बुध्न (budhná, “bottom”), Ancient Greek πυθμήν (puthmḗn, “bottom”) and Old English botm, the source of bottom.^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's first date, 1077 for the spelling fomdo, is taken from Machado; the record itself is not quoted.^[2] A Galician-Portuguese document of 1253–1254 already has et o preyto todo como andou de fundo “and the whole suit as it went from the bottom”, that is, from the beginning.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The noun meant the lowest part of a vessel, of a river and of the sea, and early came to mean the essence or foundation of something;^[3] Cunha dates the senses “depth”, “innermost part”, “capital” and “ballast” to the 13th century.^[3] Barbosa in 1611 gives fundo with Latin fundum and the adjective funda cousa “a deep thing”;^[10][11] Morais in 1789 has deitar a fundo “to sink”, also “to pull down”.^[10][11]

Modern Portuguese uses the noun in finance (a fund, capital set aside), in painting and the theatre (the background), in sport (long-distance races) and for the collection of a library or museum.^[2][1] In Brazilian informal speech the adjective means “ill-prepared, weak at something”: um aluno fundo em química.^[2][12]

Timeline

• 1077 – Houaiss's earliest date, for the spelling fomdo.^[2]
• 1253–1254 – como andou de fundo in a Galician-Portuguese document.^[7]
• 13th century – the senses “depth” and “capital”.^[3]
• c. 1430 – the word in the Horto do Esposo (copied 1390–1437).^[13]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders fundo with Latin fundus.^[14]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists fundura and funda cousa.^[10]
• 1789 – Morais records deitar a fundo “to sink”.^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. deep: reaching far below the surface; sunken, hollow (of eyes, cheeks or a plate).^[2][12][1]
2. (figurative) Deep-rooted, firm; heartfelt, coming from within: um suspiro fundo.^[2][12]
3. (figurative) Dense, thick (of darkness); hard to fathom (of a secret).^[2][12]
4. (Brazil, informal) Ill-prepared, weak at something.^[2][12]

Adverb

1. Deeply: respirar fundo.^[2][15]

Noun

1. The bottom: the inner, lowest part of a hollow object; the bed of the sea or a river.^[2][15][1]
2. The far end or innermost part of a place.^[2][15]
3. (figurative) The essence, substance of a matter; a basis, ground.^[2]
4. (economics) A fund: money brought together for a purpose; in the plural, capital.^[2][1]
5. The background of a picture or a stage set.^[2][1]
6. (sports) Long distance, in running and swimming.^[2][1]
7. The collection of a library or museum; the eye of a needle.^[2]

Word family

• afundar
• fundão
• fundura
• fundear

Related words

• fundar
• fundamento
• profundo
• Latin fundus
• Galician fundo
• Spanish hondo

Usage notes

A fundo means “thoroughly, in depth”, and Morais records it as old also for “downwards”.^[16][17] The proverb toda brincadeira tem um fundo de verdade “every joke has a grain of truth” is listed by Wiktionary.^[1]

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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. fundo
3. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. fundo
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. fundo
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3585
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 229
7. ^ a b c Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. fundo
8. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. hondo
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. fundo
11. ^ a b c Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 1, 644
12. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. fundo
13. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. fundo
14. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. fundo
15. ^ a b c Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. fundo
16. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 642
17. ^ Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 68