"F" Word Origins

Folsom

Origin

Variant of Foulsham.

foment

Origin

From Middle English fomenten, a borrowing from Old French fomenter, from Late Latin fōmentāre, from Latin fōmentum (“lotion”), from fovēre (“heat, cherish”).

FOMO

English

An initialism of "fear of missing out," which came into wide use with social media in the 2000s and 2010s.

fon

Middle English

From Middle English fonne, the same root that gave us "fun."

fond

Middle English

From Middle English fonned, "made foolish" — fond originally meant simple-minded or doting before it softened to mean affectionate.

fonda

Ancient Greek

From Spanish fonda, traced back through Arabic funduq ("inn") to an ancient Greek word for a guesthouse.

Fonder

French

Borrowed from French Fonder.

fondle

Origin

Built from fond ("loving") plus the suffix -le, which often marks a repeated or gentle action, as in "cradle" or "wobble."

fondling

Origin

From fond + -ling.

fondly

Origin

From fond + -ly, following the shift of "fond" from meaning "foolish" to meaning "affectionate."

fondness

Middle English

From Middle English fondnesse, built from fond + -ness.

fondu

Origin

Borrowed from French fondu (“melted”). Compare fondue.

fondue

French

Borrowed from French fondue, "melted," from the verb fondre, "to melt."

font

Latin

The typography sense traces to the same Latin root, fons ("fountain, source"), as the church-basin sense — both describe something a stream flows or is "cast" from.

Fontaine

French

Borrowed from French Fontaine. Doublet of Fontana.

Fontainebleau

French

Borrowed from French Fontainebleau

Fontana

Vulgar Latin

From Romance. From Vulgar Latin fontana.

fontanelle

Origin

Borrowed from French fontanelle, from Old French fontenelle, a diminutive of fontaine (“fountain, spring”) + -elle, from Late Latin fontāna, from Latin fontānus, from font- + -ānus. By surface analysis, font + -an + -elle.

foo

Origin

Thought to be a softened form of a much cruder swear word.

foobar

Origin

Phonetic spelling of FUBAR, which is either an acronym for "fucked up beyond all recognition", or derived from foo.

food

Old English

From Old English foda, going back to a very old Germanic root shared with "fodder" and "foster."

food chain

Origin

From food + chain.

foodie

Origin · 1984

Coined in the early 1980s, popularized by the 1984 book The Official Foodie Handbook.

foofaraw

Origin

First attested in the 1930s, of uncertain origin. Perhaps related to French fanfaron (“boasting”).

fook

Irish

An eye-dialect respelling of the swear word "fuck," imitating how it sounds in some Irish and Scottish accents.

fool

Latin

From Old French fol, "mad," ultimately from Latin follis, "bellows" or "bag of air" — the idea being a fool is all wind, no substance.

foolery

Origin

From Middle English foleri, ffollery, equivalent to fool + -ery.

foolhardiness

Origin

From Middle English foolhardynesse; equivalent to foolhardy + -ness.

foolhardy

Old French

From Old French fol hardi, literally "foolishly bold."

foolish

Middle English

From Middle English folisch, built from fool + -ish.

foolishly

Middle English

From Middle English folysly, folysschly; equivalent to foolish + -ly.

foolishness

Middle English

From Middle English folishnesse, follissnesse, equivalent to foolish + -ness.

foolproof

Origin

Built from fool + proof, meaning "proof against fools," i.e. safe even from careless use.

foon

Origin

A blend of "fork" and "spoon."

foosball

German

From German Fussball, itself a translation of the English word "football."

foot

Old English

From Old English fot, from a very old Indo-European root for "foot" shared across most European languages.

footage

Origin

From foot (the unit of length) + -age.

footbag

Origin

From foot + bag, by analogy with football.

football

Middle English

From Middle English fotbal, "foot" + "ball," since the ball was originally moved mainly with the feet.

footballer

Origin

From football + -er. For the kyphosid sense, named for the resemblance of their stripes to football uniforms.

footboard

Origin

From foot + board. Compare Gothic 𐍆𐍉𐍄𐌿𐌱𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌳 (fōtubaurd).

footer

Origin

From Middle English footer, equivalent to foot + -er.

footfall

Origin

From foot (“part of the human leg below the ankle”) + fall (“act of moving to a lower position under the effect of gravity”, noun).

foothold

Origin

From foot + hold.

footholder

Origin

From foot + holder.

footing

Middle English

From Middle English fotyng, built from foot + -ing.

footle

Origin

Probably variant of footer (“to screw around”), from obsolete fouter (“an act of sexual intercourse”), from French foutre (“to have sexual intercourse”), from Latin futuere.

footless

Origin

From Middle English fotles, from Old English *fōtlēas (only found as fēþelēas (“footless”)), from Proto-Germanic *fōtalausaz (“footless”), equivalent to foot + -less. Cognate with Dutch voetloos, German fußlos, Swedish fotlös, Icelandic fótalaus (“footless, legless”).