Fundament

Also † foundment. Forms: 3–6 fond(e)-, found(e)-, fund(e)ment, (4–5 occas. in pl. -mens), 4, 7 fonda-, 5–7 foundament, 5, 7 fundamente, 4– fundament. [ME. fondement, a. OF. fondement:—L. fundāment-um, f. fundāre (see FOUND v.²), f. fundus bottom: see FUND sb. The form fundament is directly from the Lat., and is therefore strictly a distinct word from foundment, but it is convenient to treat them together on account of the occurrence of mixed forms.]

  † 1.  The foundation or base of a wall, building, etc. Obs.

1297.  R. Glouc. (1724), 131. Lat delue vnder þe fundement, & þou schalt bi neþe fynde A water pol.

13[?].  The Seuyn Sages, 2122 (W.). Thai to-rent ston fram ston, The fondement to-brast anon.

1377.  Langl., P. Pl., B. XIX. 322. Þere-with grace bigan to make a good foundement, And watteled it and walled it with his peynes & his passioun.

1426.  Audelay, Poems, 23. Ȝif the fondment be false, the werke most nede falle.

1481.  Caxton, Godfrey, 248. The fondementes of it ben in the holy montaynes.

1535.  Stewart, Cron. Scot., II. 261. Ane castell … Quhairof the fundament restis ȝit to se.

1558.  Kennedy, Compend. Tract. in Wodr. Soc. Misc. (1844), 160. Thaye did big firmelye on that sure roke and fundament.

  transf. and fig.  a. 1300.  Cursor M., 21739. It [þe croice] es … Fondement of ur clergi.

c. 1375.  Sc. Leg. Saints, Petrus, 9. For-þi cane criste apone hym lay þe fundament of haly kirk.

1377.  Langl., P. Pl., B. XIV. 199. Elles is al owre labour loste … if fals be þe foundement.

1382.  Wyclif, Prov. viii. 25. Whan he heeng vp the foundemens of the erthe.

c. 1449.  Pecock, Repr., 438. It [Cephas] is also a word of Sire tunge in which it is as miche to seie as fundament or ground or stable.

1511.  Fisher, Serm. agst. Luther, Wks. (1876), 321. That grete foundament of the chirche and most stable stone.

1678.  Butler, Hud., III. ii. 1598. As in Bodies Natural The Rump’s the Fundament of all.

  † b.  A surface on which to stand, footing. Obs.

c. 1418.  Political Poems (Rolls), II. 243.

  † 2.  fig. = FOUNDATION 6. Obs.

c. 1374.  Chaucer, Boeth., IV. pr. iv. 100 (Camb. MS.). The which thing sustenyd by a stronge fowndement of resouns.

1474.  Caxton, Chesse, 71. The first fondement of Justyce is that no man shold noye ne greue other. Ibid. (1481), Myrr., II. xxv. 117. The sonne is the foundement of alle hete and of alle tyme.

1533.  Gau, Richt Vay (1888), 27. The xii articulis of the halie chrissine faith as thay ar contenit in the creid quhair thay haiff thair grund and fundment prowine be the halie writ.

1536.  Bellenden, Cron. Scot. (1821), II. 105. I think it expedient … to preche first the foundment of the Cristin faith.

1554.  Knox, Godly Let., C j. The fundament and reason, why, he wil neither offer sacrefice to Idols, neither yet defyle hys mouthe with their names.

1677.  Gale, Crt. Gentiles, II. IV. 45. There is nothing in Moralitie but has some relation to … human nature as its subject and fundament.

  3.  The lower part of the body, on which one sits; the buttocks; also, the orifice of the intestines, the anus. In birds, the vent.

1297.  R. Glouc. (Rolls), 6340. Þe luþer þef … smot him þoru þe fondement.

c. 1340.  Cursor Mundi, 22395 (Fairf.). Alle þe filþ of his magh salle breste out atte his fondament for drede.

1480.  Caxton, Chron. Eng., cxcvii. 174. He … with a spere smote the noble knyght in to the foundament soo that his bowels comen oute there.

1486.  Bk. St. Albans, C v. Anoynt hir fundement with Oyll.

1533.  Elyot, Cast. Helthe (1539), 56 b. It [vomiting] amendeth the affectes of the raines, the bladder, and the fundement.

1607.  Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1658), 148. The falling of the fundament.

1656.  Ridgley, Pract. Physick, 35. Cock chickens made bare at the Fundament.

1698.  Sir R. Sibbald, in Phil. Trans., XX. 266. He hath passed Three by the Fundament.

1727.  Swift, Gulliver, III. v. Clapping his Thumb strongly against the Orifice of the Fundament.

1754.  Connoisseur, No. 5, ¶ 12. Applying his foot directly to my fundament.

1871.  Napheys, Prev. & Cure Dis., II. IV. 546. The end may sometimes be attained by the pressure of a warm cloth against the fundament.

  b.  Comb., as fundament-bot (see quot.).

1836.  Penny Cycl., V. 261. The Œstrus hæmorrhoidalis, or fundament-bot.

  4.  (See quot.)

1894.  Gould, Illustr. Dict. Med., etc., Fundament, in embryology, the rudiment.

  † II.  5. The action of founding or establishing; also, something that is founded, an institution. Obs.

c. 1394.  P. Pl. Crede, 250. Our foundement was first of þe oþere.

1513.  Douglas, Æneis, III. i. 37. Begouth I first set wallis of a citie Allthocht my fundment was infortunate.

1536.  Bellenden, Cron. Scot. (1821), II. 6. Thay … maid the first foundement of the nobil realme of France.