English
fund
Fund comes from Latin fundus ‘bottom; piece of land, estate’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰudʰmḗn ‘bottom’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰudʰmḗn1‘bottom’reconstructed
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰudʰ-(m)n-o-s2reconstructed
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*fundos1reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfundus2‘bottom; piece of land, estate’
- Englishearliest quotation 1856fund2
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, Latin fundus
- 2 Wiktionary, English fund
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1856, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Oliver Goldsmith: “an inexhaustible fund of stories”.
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰudʰmḗnWiktionary, Latin fundus‘bottom’reconstructed
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰudʰ-(m)n-o-sWiktionary, English fundreconstructed
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*fundosWiktionary, Latin fundusreconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfundusWiktionary, English fund‘bottom; piece of land, estate’
- Englishearliest quotation 1856fundWiktionary, English fund. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1856, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Oliver Goldsmith: “an inexhaustible fund of stories”
Word family
English words that share an ancestor with fund, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.
through Proto-Indo-European *dʰewbʰ- ‘to sink in’
- deep ← dep ← dēop ← *deup ← *deupaz
- depth ← depthe ← *dīepþ ← *diupiþō ← *deupaz
- dumb ← *dumbaz
- dave ← deven ← dēafian ← dēaf ← *daub
- dip ← dippen ← dyppan ← *duppjan ← *dupjaną
- deaf ← def ← *daub ← *daubaz
- dove ← douve ← *dūfe ← *dūbā ← *dūbǭ
- dub ← dubben ← dubbian ← adober ← *dubbōn
- bottomless ← botemles ← botme ← *butmaz ← *bʰudʰmḗn
- typhus ← τῦφος ← τύφω
- doof ← dōf ← *daub ← *daubaz
through Proto-Indo-European *bʰudʰmḗn ‘bottom’
- bottom ← botme ← botm ← *butm ← *butmaz
74 more relatives in the full family tree
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Today it means
noun A sum or source of money.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “fund”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin fundus. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *bʰudʰmḗn / fund