Foundation

Forms: 4–6 f(o)undacio(u)n, -yon, 5–6 f(o)undatio(u)n, -yo(u)n, (6 foundasyon), 7 fund-, fondation, 5– foundation, [ad. L. fundātiōn-em, n. of action f. fundāre: see FOUND v.² Cf. OF. fondacion (1322).]

  1.  The action of founding or building upon a firm substructure; the state or fact of being founded.

c. 1385.  Chaucer, L. G. W., 739, Thisbe.

c. 1400.  Maundev. (1839), xxi. 223. He began the foundacioun of the Tour of Babyloyne.

1535.  Coverdale, Ezra iii. 12. Many of the olde prestes and Leuites and awncient fathers, which had sene the house afore in his foundacion, and this was now before their eyes, wept loude.

1611.  Bible, John xvii. 24. Thou louedst mee before the foundation of the world.

1719.  Tickell, Death Addison, 44.

  2.  fig. The action of establishing, instituting, or constituting on a permanent basis.

c. 1400.  Maundev. (Roxb.), xi. 44. Þat was þe fundacioun of þe Templeres and of þaire ordre.

1548.  Hall, Chron., Edw. IV. (an. 9), 206 b. For the more sure foundacion of the newe amitie, Edward Prince of Wales, wedded Anne.

1619.  Sempil, Sacrilege Handled, 84. Heere then was but a Nuncupation, a Fundation of Priesthood.

1841.  Lane, Arab. Nts., I. 73. In what may be termed the Middle Age of Arabic literature, commencing from the triumph of the Mohammadan religion, and extending to the foundation of the Empire of Baghdad, the power of eloquence over the educated classes of the Arabs probably increased in proportion as it became less familiar to them.

1874.  Green, Short Hist., viii. § 5. 506. The foundation of the linen manufacture which was to bring wealth to Ulster, and the first developement of Irish commerce, date from the Lieutenancy of Wentworth.

  3.  esp. The establishing of an institution, together with an endowment or provision for its perpetual maintenance.

1389.  in Eng. Gilds (1870), 67. Theyse arne the ordinaunces of the Gylde of Seynt Katerine the virgine, of Lenne, ordeynyd be the assent of the bretheryn in the fyrste fundacion.

c. 1460.  Fortescue, Abs. & Lim. Mon., xix. (1885), 185. To establysh, and as who sayth, amortyse þe same lyuelod to is crowne … wych than wold be as a newe ffundacion of is crowne.

1513.  Bradshaw, St. Werburge, I. 2449.

1587.  Fleming, Contn. Holinshed, III. 1349/2. In ech vniuersities by the foundation of the ordinarie and publike lessons, there is one of physicke, but none of surgerie.

1859.  C. Barker, Associative Principles, i. 7. The piety mingled with conjugal, filial, or parental devotion at home, evidenced by bequests of broad acres, the foundation of religious houses, and not unfrequently by the self-devotion of the object most dear to the crusading warrior.

  † b.  The charter of establishment or incorporation of a society, institution, etc., with rules and ordinances for its government. Obs.

1389.  in Eng. Gilds (1870), 110 [heading]. Certificacio fundacionis et regiminis gilde … [ending with] Other fundacioun es ther non.

1530–1.  Act 22 Hen. VIII., c. 12. Euery person … bounden by reason of any foundacion or ordynaunce to gyue or distribute any money in almes.

1546.  Mem. Ripon (Surtees), III. 20. As in the First Chauntrie at large is declared as apperyth by Foundacion dated [etc.].

  4.  That which is founded or established by endowment; an institution (e.g., a monastery, college, or hospital) established with an endowment and regulations for its maintenance.

1513.  More, in Grafton, Chron. (1568), II. 808. He begun to founde a College of a hundred priestes, which foundation with the founder shortly tooke an ende.

1669.  Woodhead, St. Teresa, II. xxviii. 175. It was our Lords pleasure, that no Foundation should be erected without great troubles to me; some on one manner, some on another.

1843.  Coleridge, in Stanley, Arnold’s Life & Corr. (1844), I. i. 8. Corpus is a very small establishment,—twenty fellows and twenty scholars, with four exhibitioners, form the foundation.

1867.  Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), I. iv. 190. He was with difficulty hindered from becoming a monk in his own foundation of Jumièges.

  b.  On (or † of) the foundation: said of the members of an endowed college or similar society.

1491.  Act 7 Hen. VII., c. 19. William Priour of Cristchurche of Caunterbury of your noble fundacion.

1588.  Ld. Burghley, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., Ser. I. III. 26. No Scholer nor Fellowe of the foundation of any Howse of Learninge do weare either in the Universitye or without.

1761.  Gray, Lett., Wks. 1884, III. 86. If the boy was to be on the foundation [at Eton], I had no more to do but send him to him, and the business should be done.

1839.  De Quincey, Recoll. Lakes, Wks. 1862, II. 71. In his childish days, and when he had become an orphan, Coleridge was removed to the heart of London, and placed on the great foundation of Christ’s Hospital.

1881.  Oxford Univ. Calend., 163. There are now fourteen Fellowships and fifteen Scholarships on the old Foundation at this College.

  c.  The fund or revenues appropriated to endow such an institution. Also U.S. (see quot. 1851).

c. 1430.  Lydg., Min. Poems, 136.

1593.  Nashe, Christ’s T., 83 b. They peruert foundations, and will not bestow the Bequeathers free almes, but for brybes, or for friendship.

1655.  Fuller, The Church-History of Britain, VI. iii. 312. None [of the Convents] was left standing in the whole Diocesse of Bangor, where no Foundation was valued at full seventy pounds per annum.

1851.  B. H. Hall, College Words, 134. Foundation…. In America it is applied to a donation or legacy appropriated especially to maintain poor and deserving, or other students at a college.

  5.  The solid ground or base (natural or built up) on which an edifice or other structure is erected; also, the lowest part of a building, usually constructed below the ground-level.

1494.  Fabyan, Chron., V. cxxxiv. 119. Albeit y^t many [buildings] stande vpon theyr first foundacion, as this yet doth.

1585.  T. Washington, trans. Nicholay’s Voy. Turkie, I. viii. 8 b. Where as yet are seene the foundations of the auncient citie Tipasa.

1697.  Dryden, Æneid, III. 27.

1802.  C. James, Milit. Dict., s.v., If the earth to be built upon is very soft, as in moorish grounds, or such that the natural foundation cannot be trusted, then you must get good pieces of oak, [etc.].

1850.  Mrs. Jameson, Leg. Monast. Ord. (1863), 22. In digging the foundations of the monastery of Monte Cassino, they discover an idol of bronze, from which issues a supernatural fire which threatens to destroy the whole edifice.

  transf. and fig.  1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., V. lvii. (1495), 172. The bones ben the foundacion of al the body and the byldynge of all the body is sette thervpon.

1535.  Coverdale, Ps. cii. 25. Thou Lorde in the begynnynge has layed y^t foundacion of the earth.

1597.  Daniel, Civ. Wars, VI. 54.

1648.  Herrick, Hesper., Hock-cart, 28.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., I. 455.

1705.  S. Sewall, Diary, 19 Jan. (1879), II. 122. The Horses went away with the foundation and left the Superstructure of the Slay and the Riders behind.

  † b.  The ‘seat’ of the body, the ‘fundament.’

1681.  Colvil, Whigs Supplic. (1751), 131.

  6.  fig. A basis or groundwork on which something (immaterial) is raised or by which it is supported or confirmed; an underlying ground or principle; the basis on which a story, fiction, or the like is founded.

c. 1400.  Hist. & Art. Masonry, 28. Hit was cause and fundacion of all craftys and sciens.

1529.  More, Dyaloge, I. Wks. 161/1. How be it Luther saith because it is not commaunded by scripture, we maye chose therefore whether we will do it or leue it. For this one poynt is the very fond foundacion and ground of all his great heresyes, that a man is not bounden to beleue any thing but if it may be proued euidently by scripture.

1611.  Bible, Transl. Pref., 4. The Edition of the Seuentie … was vsed by the Greeke fathers for the ground and foundation of their Commentaries.

1628.  T. Spencer, Logick, 182. The principles, and foundation of a demonstration, are necessary axiomes.

1674.  Playford, Skill Mus., III. 1. The Bass, which is the lowest part and foundation of the whole Song.

1695.  Woodward, Nat. Hist. Earth, III. ii. (1723), 179. There being no reasonable Foundation to believe that the Deluge did come to pass this Way.

1711.  Steele, Spect., No. 91, 14 June, ¶ 1. The Subject I am now going upon would be much more properly the Foundation of a Comedy.

1716.  Lady M. W. Montagu, Lett. to Lady Rich, 1 Oct. The report of my returning to England; though, like other pleasures, I can assure you it has no real foundation.

1765.  Blackstone, Comm., I. 47. The only true and natural foundations of society are the wants and the fears of individuals.

1843.  Mill, Logic, I. iii. § 9. Adopting the language already used by the school logicians in the case of the kind of attributes called Relations, I shall term the sensation of white the foundation of the quality whiteness.

1875.  Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), I. 313, Euthyphro, Introduction. Thus far Socrates has proceeded in placing religion on a moral foundation.

  † b.  A ground or reason upon which men act; an understanding, basis of agreement. Obs.

1642.  R. Carpenter, Experience, IV. ii. 132. The way of the Italians is, (as the Colledge hath taught me) after a quarrell betwixt two, one deviseth presently how he may kill his adversary, upon this foundation, because he must either kill or be kill’d.

1727.  A. Hamilton, New Acc. E. Ind., II. xli. 107. That the English might again repair to their respecthe Houses, and trade on the old Foundation.

1793.  Smeaton, Edystone L., § 30. Upon this foundation Captain Lovet engaged Mr. John Rudyerd to be his engineer.

  7.  transf. That upon which any structure is built up; a body or ground upon which other parts are overlaid; in various technical uses: e.g., in Dress-making, an underskirt over which the outer skirt is hung or draped; also, a material used for stiffening a garment, etc.; in crochet-work and knitting, the first set of stitches, to which the rest are secured.

1874.  Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 909/2. Foundation.… (Hat-making.) The body of a hat, of wool or inferior fur, upon which the napping of superior fur is laid and united at the battery.

1882.  Caulfeild & Saward, Dict. Needlework, Foundation Net.—A coarse quality of Net, made with large meshes, gummed, and employed for stiff foundations in millinery and dsressmaking.

1893.  Geo. Hill, Hist. Eng. Dress, II. 270. A tulle ball dress often had six skirts of tulle over a foundation of satin.

  8.  attrib. and Comb. a. simple attrib. (= belonging to or serving as a foundation, fundamental).

1665.  Glanvill, Scepsis Scientifica, xi. (1680), 98. If any ask, how the Soul came by those foundation-Propositions.

1670.  Devout Commun. (1688), 160. Christ, that foundation-mercy, that hath all mercies folded up in him.

1726.  Vanbrugh, Journ. to Lond., I. i. It is a settled foundation-point that every child that is born shall be a beggar, except one; and that he—shall be a fool.

1875.  E. White, Life in Christ, III. xx. (1878), 262. Throughout his [S. Paul’s] epistles he builds everywhere on the foundation-thought that a Christian is a man who had undergone some supernatural change which enables him to ‘walk in the spirit.’

  b.  = belonging to a foundation (sense 4), as foundation-charter, child, † master, scholar, † undergraduate.

c. 1670.  Wood, Life (1848), 129. A copie of the *foundation-charter of Canterbury college in Oxon.

1845.  Stocqueler, Handbk. Brit. India (1854), 156. The *foundation children, fifty in number, are elected from the Christian population of Calcutta without respect to the religious denomination with which they are connected.

1706.  Hearne, Collect., 17 Feb. He was a *Foundation Master (as they call them).

1883.  Cassell’s Fam. Mag., Aug., 525/1. The number of free or *Foundation scholars has been increased.

1687.  W. Sherwin, in Magd. Coll. & Jas. II. (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), 216–7. The Statutes of that Place did not admit that any *foundation-undergraduate should take place of a graduate.

  c.  Special comb.: foundation-chain, the first stitches in a piece of crochet-work; foundation-muslin, -net, gummed fabrics used for stiffening dresses and bonnets; foundation-school, an endowed school; foundation-stone, one of the stones forming the foundation of a building; spec. a stone laid with public ceremony to celebrate the founding of the edifice; also fig.; foundation-stop, in an organ (see quot. 1881).

1882.  Caulfeild & Saward, Dict. Needlework, *Foundation Chain.

1858.  Simmonds, Dict. Trade, *Foundation-muslin, an open-worked gummed fabric, used for stiffening dresses and bonnets.

1882.  Caulfeild & Saward, Dict. Needlework, *Foundation Net.—A coarse quality of Net, made with large meshes, gummed, and employed for stiff foundations in millinery and dressmaking.

1833.  Marryat, P. Simple (1863), 92. I had been brought up as a surgeon and apothecary, and had been educated at a *foundation school.

1651.  Hobbes, Leviath., III. xlii. 302. By the *Foundation-Stone of the Church, was meant the Fundamentall Article of the Churches Faith.

1874.  Morley, Compromise (1886), 250. The first foundation-stone for the doctrine of liberty is to be sought in the conception of society as a growing and developing organism.

1887.  Spectator, LX. 9 July, 924/1. On Monday last, the foundation-stone of the Imperial Institute was laid by the Queen.

1846.  Rimbault, in North, Mem. Musicke, 121. Smith seems to have excelled in the diapason or *foundation stops.

1881.  C. A. Edwards, Organs, 148. Foundation stops are those that give a note corresponding to the key pressed.

  Hence † Foundation v., to ground.

1627–77.  Feltham, Resolves, II. xxvii. 215. He that foundations not himself with the Arts, will hardly be fit to go out Doctor either to himself, or others.