foundation

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   education or instruction in the fundamentals of a field of knowledge

   They lack the foundation necessary for advanced study.

2. 2
   noun

   the basis on which something is grounded

   There is little foundation for these objections.

3. 3
   noun

   The act of founding, fixing, establishing, or beginning to erect.

   The foundation of his institute has been wrought with difficulty.

4. 4
   noun

   That upon which anything is founded; that on which anything stands, and by which it is supported; the lowest and supporting layer of a superstructure; underbuilding.

   Aye Madam to be sure that is the Provoking circumstance—without Foundation—yes yes—there's the mortification indeed—for when a slanderous story is believed against one—there certainly is no comfort like the consciousness of having deserved it——

5. 5
   noun

   The result of the work to begin something; that which stabilizes and allows an enterprise or system to develop.

   The implication is that the Gandhian model of growth is possible, now that Nehru's investment strategy had already laid a strong foundation for economic growth.

6. 6
   noun

   The lowest and supporting part or member of a wall, including the base course and footing courses; in a frame house, the whole substructure of masonry.

   The foundations of this construction have been laid out.

7. 7
   noun

   That which is founded, or established by endowment; an endowed institution or charity.

   The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. is the parent organization of the Wiktionary collaborative project.

8. 8
   noun

   A basis for social bodies or intellectual disciplines.

   Economics is a messy discipline: too fluid to be a science, too rigorous to be an art. Perhaps it is fitting that economists’ most-used metric, gross domestic product (GDP), is a tangle too.[…]But as a foundation for analysis it is highly subjective: it rests on difficult decisions about what counts as a territory, what counts as output and how to value it. Indeed, economists are still tweaking it.

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dʰewbʰ- ~ *dʰubʰ- Proto-Indo-European *-mḗn Proto-Indo-European *bʰudʰmḗnder. Proto-Italic *funðos Latin fundus Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Italic *-āō Latin -ō Latin fundō Proto-Indo-European *-tisder. Proto-Italic *-tjō Latin -tiō Latin fundātiōder. Old French fondacionbor. Middle English foundacioun English foundation From Middle English foundacioun, fundacioun, from Old French fondacion, from Latin fundātiō (“founding, foundation”).