I was thinking the other day about the word found, and how
it can mean “discovered” and also “begin, lay the base”. So I decided to search the etymologies,
primarily using www.EtymOnline.com and
supplementing with other dictionaries available online such as the Webster’s
1828.
Found, as in “lay
the base” is from the Latin for “bottom”.
It shares a root with fund,
which entered English meaning “bottom, foundation, groundwork” and quickly came
to mean “stock of available money” by the 1690’s. It is theorized that the PIE root, *bhudh- is also the source of Old
English botm – and maybe even the
Hebrew for “build”, banah. Build,
in English, is supposed to come through the Germanic for “home, building” from a
PIE root, *bhu- "to
dwell," from root *bheue- "to
be, exist, grow".
In Old English, the word timbran
was preferred to communicate “to build”, but it died out and primarily remained
in our word timber from PIE *deme- "to build,"
possibly from root *dem- "house,
household" (source of Greek domos,
Latin domus; and of our words: domestic and domain and don).
The derivative verb, founder,
is less encouraging that the verb found
– the latter meaning “to establish” but the former meaning “to collapse” or “to
sink to the bottom”.
Another sense of found,
as in foundry, means to “cast metal”,
originally “to mix, mingle” from the Latin fundere
“melt, cast, pour out” from the PIE *gheu-
“to pour”, cognate with guts “bowels,
entrails”, gutter, gush, and geyser.
The noun fountain
comes from the Old French fontaine, “natural
spring” from the Latin fontanus “of a
spring” and fons “spring (of water)”. The proposed PIE is *dhen- (1) “to run, flow”.
Find, my original
curiosity for the day, is from the Proto-Germanic *finthan “to come upon, discover”.
Before that, it comes, we think, from PIE *pent- “to tread, go” as in pedestrian
and path and pontoon. Isn’t that lovely
imagery?
But isn’t it curious how these such similar words are
thought to have independent etymologies?
It makes me wonder how well-attested the published etymologies are, or
could there be alternatives that are more united?
To God be all glory.
