Forms 4–5 fund(e, fond(e, fownd(e, 4– found. Pa. t. and pa. pple. founded: also 4–5 founde, fund(e, fond, and in pa. pple. (by confusion with that of FIND), fonden, -yn, founden, -un. [a. F. fonder:—L. fundāre, f. fund-us bottom, foundation.]
1. trans. To lay the base or substructure of (a building, etc.); to set, fix, or build on a firm ground or base. (Sometimes used simply = build, erect.)
c. 1330. Arth. & Merl., 1443.
| Tel me now, sone mine, | |
| Whi noman no may founde | |
| Castel here open þis grounde. |
c. 1340. Cursor M., 7876 (Trin.). He [Dauid] an hous bigon to founde.
1382. Wyclif, Matt. vii. 25. lt felle nat doun, for it was foundid [1388, foundun] on a stoon.
c. 1384. Chaucer, H. Fame, III. 891.
| Yet hit [the hous] is founded to endure | |
| Whul that hit list to Aventure. |
c. 1400. Rom. Rose, 4155.
| Of squared stoon a sturdy wal, | |
| Which on a cragge was founded al. |
1611. Bible, Matt. vii. 25. And the raine descended, and the floods came, and the windes blew, and beat vpon that house: and if fell not, for it was founded vpon a rocke.
1752. Hume, Ess. & Treat. (1777), II. 97. I no more suspect this event, than the falling of the house itself which is new, and solidly built and founded.
b. To serve as the base or foundation of.
1728. Pope, The Dunciad, I. 156.
| An hecatomb of pure, unsully’d lays | |
| That altar crowns: A folio Common-place | |
| Founds the whole pile, of all his works the base. |
2. To build (an edifice, town, etc.) for the first time; to begin the building of, be the first builder of.
c. 1290. Becket, 374, in S. Eng. Leg., I. 117.
| Þe churche of Redinge, | |
| Þat i-founded was and a-rerd þoruȝ henri þe oþur kingue. |
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. I. 59.
| That is the castel of care … | |
| Ther-inne woneth a wiht · that wrong is i-hote, | |
| Fader of falsness · he foundede it him-seluen. |
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 11662. Here foundit he first the faire place Ylion.
1609. Holland, Amm. Marcell., XIV. vii. 17. Seleucia, founded and built by king Seleucus.
1718. Prior, Solomon, II. 15.
| Artists and Plans reliev’d my solemn Hours: | |
| I founded Palaces, and planted Bow’rs. | |
| Birds, Fishes, Beasts of each Exotic Kind | |
| I to the Limits of my Court confin’d. |
1835. Thirlwall, Greece, I. ii. 58. His son Lycaon founds the first city, Lycosura.
3. fig. To set up or establish for the first time (an institution, etc.), esp. with provision for its perpetual maintenance; to originate, create, initiate (something which continues to exist thenceforward).
a. 1300. Cursor M., 20901 (Cott.).
| Quen he of antioche had fund | |
| þe kirk, and graytli set on grund. |
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 127.
| At Feuersham he lis, at a heuen in Kent, | |
| In an abbey of pris he founded with lond & rent. |
1368. in Eng. Gilds, 54. In septembre þis fraternite is funded and stabeled.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. X. 214.
| Alle þise science[s] I my-self · sotiled and ordeyned, | |
| And founded hem formest · folke to deceyue. |
c. 1460. Fortescue, Abs. & Lim. Mon., xix. Ffor þer as oþer kynges haue ffounded byshopriches, abbeys, and oþer howses off relegyon, þe kyng shall þan haue ffounded an holl reaume, and endowed it with gretter possescions, and better then euer was any reaume in cristendome.
1611. Bible, 2 Macc. ii. 13. How he founding a librarie, gathered together the acts of the Kings, and the Prophets, and of Dauid, and the Epistles of the Kings concerning the holy gifts.
1671. Milton, P. R., III. 294.
| All these the Parthian, now some Ages past, | |
| By great Arsaces led, who founded first | |
| That empire. |
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 413, 24 June, ¶ 5. ’Tis very remarkable that wherever Nature is crost in the Production of a Monster (the Result of any unnatural Mixture) the Breed is incapable of propagating its Likeness, and of founding a new Order of Creatures.
1790. Paley, Horæ Paul., Rom. ii. 18. The two epistles to the Corinthians show that the principal end of his coming into Greece was to visit that city, where he had founded a church.
1845. M. Pattison, Ess. (1889), I. 12. Grope among those vineyards and orchards in the little village over the bridge, you may detect an archway, and a piece of a wall; that was the abbey of Marmoutier, founded by St. Martin himself.
1861. Maine, Anc. Law, 113. They appear in the annotations of the Glossators who founded modern jurisprudence, and in the writings of the scholastic jurists who succeeded them.
1874. L. Stephen, Hours in Library (1892), I. v. 169. Various attempts have been made to solve the problem since De Foe founded the modern school of English novelists, by giving us what is in one sense a servile imitation of genuine narrative, but which is redeemed from prose by the unique force of the situation.
1874. Green, Short Hist., v. § 1. 218. Up to Edward’s time few woollen fabrics seem to have been woven in England, though Flemish weavers had come over with the Conqueror to found the prosperity of Norwich.
1885. Manch. Exam., 8 June, 5/2. Bismarck is eager to found colonies in all parts of the world.
† b. To endow, make provision for the maintenance of (persons who are to perform certain functions). Obs.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XV. 318.
| And ȝiueth to bidde for ȝow · to such that ben riche, | |
| And ben founded and feffed eke · to bidde for other. |
c. 1450. Lonelich, Grail, liii. 306.
| Thus dede kyng Galaaz with-Owten lak, | |
| and fownded An hows Of the Trenite, | |
| And there-Inne Syxty Monkes serteinle, | |
| and therto fownded hem with good Inowhe, | |
| Of londes and Rentes, Oxen And plowhe. |
c. 1500. Melusine, lix. 361. Yf thou wylt edyfye an hospital, and founde therin a preste to syng dayly for thy faders sowle.
1535. Coverdale, 2 Kings xxiii. 5. And he put downe the Kemurims, whom the kynges of Iuda had founded, to burne incense vpon the hye places, in the cities of Iuda, and aboute Ierusalem.
1612. Drayton, Poly-olb., xxiv. 873.
| As they of Gilbert doe, who founded those Diuines, | |
| Monasticks all that were, of him nam’d Gilbertines. |
4. To set or establish (something immaterial) on a firm basis; to give a basis or firm support to; to construct as on a ground or underlying reason or principle; to base, ground. Const. on, upon.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 127 (Cott.).
| Þar-for þis werc sal I fund | |
| Apon a selcuth stedfast grund. |
1393. Gower, Conf., III. 342.
| Lo, what it is to be well grounded, | |
| For he hath first his love founded | |
| Honestelich as for to wedde, | |
| Honestelich his love he spedde. |
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 4640.
| Be many opynion I prefe · þat pure is ȝoure teeches, | |
| Mare fonden opon foly · þan ficchid on reson. |
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 1 b. Therfore on it I founde this poore treatyse.
1604. Shaks., Oth., III. iv. 94.
| Des. A man that all his time | |
| Hath founded his good Fortunes on your loue. |
1662. Stillingfl., Orig. Sacr., II. v. § 5. The question which Moses supposeth, is founded upon clear and evident reason.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 162, 5 Sept., ¶ 6. The most humourous Character in Horace is founded upon this Unevenness of Temper and Irregularity of Conduct.
1850. L. Hunt, Auiobiog., I. ii. 77. Colman’s ‘Inkle and Yarico,’ a play founded on a Barbadian story.
1865. M. Arnold, Ess. Crit., iii. 85. Greatness can never be founded upon frivolity and corruption.
1879. Lubbock, Sci. Lect., ii. 42. A classification of insects founded on larvæ would be quite different from that founded on the perfect insects.
1886. Law Rep., 31 Ch. Div. 626. The order appealed from was founded on the Chief Clerk’s certificate.
Mod. This novel is believed to be founded on fact.
b. const. in.
1667. Decay Chr. Piety, xvii. 383. The Opinion of some Schoolmen, That dominion is founded in Grace.
1690. Locke, Govt., I. ix. § 97. A Right to the use of the Creatures, being founded Originally in the Right a Man has to subsist and enjoy the conveniences of Life.
1733. Pope, Ess. Man, III. 109.
| God, in the nature of each being, founds | |
| Its proper bliss, and sets its proper bounds. |
1832. Sir G. C. Lewis, Remarks on the Use and Abuse of Some Political Terms, iii. 9. A claim founded in justice and expediency, which they call a right.
1837–9. Hallam Hist. Lit. I. viii. 1. § 23. 432 To remarks so delicate in taste and so founded in knowledge, I should not venture to add much of my own.
† c. with obj. a person: To establish in a firm position (in controversy, etc.); to ground in (a subject of instruction, etc.); also refl. to take one’s stand upon (a ground for argument, etc.). Obs.
c. 1394. P. Pl. Crede, 47. It is but a faynt folk · i-founded vp-on iapes.
1481. Caxton, Mirrour of the World, II. viii. 81. This knewe they [the Magi] by their grete witte and vnderstandyng of astronomye in whiche they were endowed and founded. Ibid. (1483), Gold. Leg., 162/2. He was ryght sore founded in humylyte.
1643. Sir T. Browne, Relig. Med., I. § 43. They that found themselves on the radical Balsome, or vital Sulphur of the parts, determine not why Abel lived not so long as Adam.
1644. Milton, Educ., Wks. (1847), 98/2. Because our understanding cannot in this body found itself but on sensible things.
1676–7. Marvell, Corr., cclxxxiv. Wks. 1872–5, II. 516. If you find yourselves so firmly founded as we imagine you.
d. Of a thing: To serve as, or furnish, a basis or ground for.
1690. Locke, Hum. Und., II. xxviii. § 19. The comparing them then in their Descent from the same Person, without knowing the particular Circumstances of that Descent, is enough to found my Notion of their having or not having the Relation of Brothers.
1885. B. Coleridge, in Law Times Rep., LII. 585/1. The relationship between the parties was nevertheless one of bailment, and therefore could not found criminal proceedings.
1894. Solicitors’ Jrnl., XXXIX. 3 Nov., 2/2. The further report, if it is to found jurisdiction for an order for public examination, must state that fraud has been committed, though the guilty person need not be specified.
e. intr. (for refl.: cf. 4 c). To base oneself or one’s opinion, to base itself, to be based (on, upon). Chiefly Sc.
1836–7. Sir W. Hamilton, Metaph., vi. (1870), I. 99. The legitimacy of every synthesis is thus necessarily dependent on the legitimacy of the analysis which it pre-supposes, and on which it founds.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., III. I. v. All Delineation, in these ages, were it never so Epic, ‘speaking itself and not singing itself,’ must either found on Belief and provable Fact, or have no foundation at all.
1856. Dove, Logic Chr. Faith, V. ii. 311. The very possibility is sufficient to destroy all that course of argumentation which founds on the occurrences of the outward world.
1882. Ogilvie, s.v. ‘I found upon the evidence of my senses.’
† 5. To fasten or attach to. Also fig. Obs.
1541. R. Copland, Guydon’s Quest. Chirurg. The bone that is called (os laude) wherto the tongue is founded.
1641. Marmion, Antiquary, III. Dram. Wks. (1875), 240.
| I see you are growing obdurate in your crimes, | |
| Founded to vice, lost to all piety. |
Hence Founding vbl. sb.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, v. heading. Of the Foundyng of New Troye.
1571. Hanmer, Chron. Irel. (1633), 41. There Lumianus by their meanes builded a Church some twenty five yeeres before the founding of Armagh.
1682. Wood, Life, 20 March. The vice-chancellor asked ‘whether they denied the founding of the lecture itself, or the conditions?’
1697. Conf. at Lambeth in W. S. Perry, Hist. Coll. Amer. Col. Ch., I. 40. Particularly, the word founding, which is always the Law Word for a perpetual fund of maintenance, is always put into these Revenues.
1859. Tennyson, Vivien, 408.
| It was the time when first the question rose | |
| About the founding of a Table Round. |
1889. Athenæum, 9 Feb., 178/2. Then why did he not marry Norbertine to his hero, the young man of great possessions, and let them live happily ever afterwards, instead of making one a nun and causing the other to die a ‘Poor Brother’ in the hospital of his own founding?
