fundamentaladj.n.
/ˌfʌndəˈmɛntl/, U.S. /ˌfəndəˈmɛn(t)l/ A. adj.† 2. Thorough; well-grounded. Obsolete.† 5.
1.
a. Serving as a basis or foundation; (hence) forming an essential or indispensable part of a system, institution, etc. Also with to or (occasionally) †of.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > causation > basis or foundation > [adjective] > fundamental to or of
fundamentalc1443
c1443 R. Pecock Reule of Crysten Religioun (1927) 227 (MED) Þei mowe..come into knowing of þis trouþe as for þe first fundamental trouþe in þis mater.
c1456 R. Pecock Bk. Faith (Trin. Cambr.) (1909) 235 (MED) Forto leene to Holi Writt as for grounding and foundamental teching of thilk feith.
1578 W. Bourne Treasure for Traueilers v. viii. f. 15 It is a great deepe sea: therefore it is to bee supposed, that the fundamentall nature.., or ground therof was of Salt.
1579 J. Stubbs Discouerie Gaping Gulf sig. A.6v Yet sith the vnity of the Church is noted to be herein that Christians be the houshold of faith, in the fundamental doctrine whereof, what it is, what is the vse, worthines, & working thereof, the papistes dissenting from vs.., it wil be hard to make them of one faithful houshold with vs.
1581 J. Frampton tr. P. de Medina Arte Nauigation iv. i. f. 29 (heading) The first Chapter, wherein are declared 17. Fundamentall principles, which ought to be knowen in the Altitude of the Sunne.
a1616 W. Shakespeare All's Well that ends Well (1623) iii. i. 2 Now haue you heard The fundamentall reasons of this warre. View more context for this quotation
1641 ‘Smectymnuus’ Vindic. Answer Hvmble Remonstr. iv. 59 Fundamentall laws are not subject to alteration.
1650 T. Fuller Pisgah-sight of Palestine ii. xi. 235 Samson applied himself to the two pillars most fundamentall to the roof of Dagons Temple.
1652 W. Blith Eng. Improver Improved xxxiii. 221 The Sheath and Plough-head, which is the materiall fundamentall peeces in the Plough, must be made of heart of Oak.
a1705 J. Howe in C. H. Spurgeon Treasury of David (1874) IV. Ps. lxxxix. 2 Former mercies are fundamental to later ones.
1718 M. Prior Power 217 Their ills all built on life, that fundamental ill.
1785 T. Reid Ess. Intellect. Powers 608 The fundamental rules of poetry and music and painting, and dramatic action, and eloquence, have always been the same, and will be to the end of the world.
1835 J. Harris Great Teacher (1837) 87 The existence of the Deity is a truth fundamental of every other.
1863 ‘G. Eliot’ Romola III. vi. 62 The ideas of strict law and order were fundamental to all his political teaching.
1876 J. B. Mozley Univ. Serm. (1877) iv. 88 How low down in a man sometimes..lies the fundamental motive which sways his life!
1957 Social Res. 24 1 The first fundamental principle of collective security is the prohibition of force.
1971 Sci. Amer. Nov. 58/3 The concept of moving plates is now fundamental to the theory of continental drift.
2005 Times Lit. Suppl. 11 Feb. 22/1 Narrative tension is an absolutely fundamental part of McEwan's technique.
2011 Daily Tel. 13 July 8/2 I don't think there's a fundamental right to know what a celeb presenting a programme gets paid.
b. Biology. Of an organ or part of the body: essential or indispensable for existence, growth, development, etc.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > part of plant > [adjective] > fundamental
fundamentalc1454
c1454 R. Pecock Folewer to Donet 41 Þe lyuer is þe fundamental membir of al þe bodi, as for nurischyng of al þe bodi.
1665 M. Nedham Medela Medicinæ ii. 36 For it [sc. the Disease] yet continues, not in that open hostility it exercised before, but more treacherously and slily insinuates it self into the internal and fundamental parts of the Body.
1772 W. Cullen Inst. Med. i. 10 Vital solids,..the fundamental part of the nervous system.
1776 W. Kenrick et al. tr. Comte de Buffon Nat. Hist. Animals, Veg., & Minerals VI. Index p. vii There are essential and fundamental parts to the body of an animal.
1840 D. Oliver First Lines Physiol. (ed. 2) xxix. 452 The testes and ovaria..are the fundamental organs of sex.
1856 J. S. Henslow Dict. Bot. Fundamental-organs, the nutritive organs absolutely essential to the existence of the individual.
1887 Jrnl. Columbus Hort. Soc. 11 106 In common with most flowering plants, it consists of four fundamental parts, viz: (1) root; (2) stem; (3) leaf; (4) plant-hair. These are all the parts necessary to the growth, development and reproduction of the plant.
1936 W. F. Calderon Animal Painting & Anat. ii. i. 95 The fundamental part of the skeleton is the spine.
1991 Amer. Jrnl. Bot. 78 1694 Rhizophores..are fundamental axial organs that coordinate with the stem and root.
2001 Proc. National Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 98 12339/2 During animal evolution a ‘prepattern’ of fundamental organs emerged relatively early.
c. Finance. Designating underlying economic factors and company-specific data which may be used to identify market trends, forecast developments in the value of an investment, etc.; designating the use of such factors for this purpose, esp. as opposed to the use of patterns in market data (cf. technical adj. 5). See also fundamental analysis n. at Compounds 2.
ΚΠ
1911 Boston Post 3 Apr. 14/2 Many people believe that the whole trading and investment world is simply awaiting the decisions so that they may base their commitments on fundamental and technical conditions which can, to some extent, be ascertained.
1951 N.Y. Times 7 Jan. 113/1 (advt.) If you are one who looks upon fundamental indices and prevailing statistical data as sufficiently accurate factors to mold your investment program for the year ahead, you are..likely to sustain tremendous capital losses.
1991 J. L. Casti Searching for Certainty (1992) iv. 197 We are able to ‘predict’ the market through the use of any trading scheme, be it fundamental or technical.
2006 Wall St. Jrnl. 13 Feb. (Central ed.) c1 (advt.) With both technical and fundamental data, you can design, build, and back-test your big ideas before you invest.
ΚΠ
c1449 R. Pecock Repressor (1860) 413 Aftir sure fundamental encerche.
3. Primary, original; from which others are derived.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > causation > source or origin > [adjective]
mother?c1225
originalc1350
radicala1398
primitive?a1425
fundamentalc1449
primordial?a1450
primea1500
primary1565
nativea1592
fundamentive1593
primordiate1599
primara1603
remote1605
originousa1637
originary1638
parental1647
principiate1654
fontal1656
underivative1656
underived1656
fountainous1662
first hand1699
matricular1793
first-handed1855
protomorphic1887
c1449 R. Pecock Repressor (1860) 350 Noon fundamental cronicler or storier writith therof saue Girald.
1648 M. Nedham Plea for King sig. C3 They will so order the matter, that the next Parliament ensuing shall be altered from the fundamentall Forme, to be meerly popular.
1667 W. Petty in T. Sprat Hist. Royal-Soc. ii. 302 All the materials are either Red, Yellow, or Blew, so that out of them, and the primitive fundamental Colour, White; all that great variety which we see in Dyed Stuffs doth arise.
1782 J. Anderson Interest Great-Brit. ii. 39 We must consider Britain by herself, as the fundamental state, and regard America as an extraneous appendage.
1868 Sci. Opinion 6 Jan. 174/2 Of the most varied shapes, apparently referrible to the Astrorhiza limicola as their fundamental type.
1874 A. H. Sayce Princ. Compar. Philol. vii. 262 In the noun the nominative was regarded as the fundamental case.
1881 B. F. Westcott & F. J. A. Hort New Test. in Orig. Greek II. Introd. i. 11 The fundamental editions [of the N.T.] were those of Erasmus..and of Stunica.
2001 Philos. & Phenomenol. Res. 62 269 Those who believe that triangles are the fundamental shape and that all other shapes supervene.
4. Mathematics. Designating a mathematical concept or expression from which others are derived, or which is otherwise considered as essential to a particular area of study. In later use frequently in the names of such concepts and expressions, as fundamental equation, fundamental group, fundamental region, etc.
ΚΠ
1570 J. Dee in H. Billingsley tr. Euclid Elements Geom. Math. Præf. sig. cijv Diuide the side of your Fundamentall Cube into so many æquall partes.
1669 S. Sturmy Mariners Mag. ii. 47 Therefore we will demonstrate the fundamental Diagram of the Mathematical Scale.
1797 tr. L. Euler Elements Algebra I. i. xxii. 108 Let us resume also the other fundamental equation.
1893 A. R. Forsyth Theory Functions Complex Variable 591 There is considerable freedom of choice of an initial region of reference, which may be called a fundamental region.
1945 Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 58 292 This category Xb would be used in a functorial treatment of the fundamental group and of the homotopy groups.
1972 M. Kline Math. Thought xxxvii. 900 The invariants of interest in Riemannian geometry involve not only the fundamental quadratic form..but may also contain derivatives of the coefficients and of other functions.
2003 D. G. Zill & P. D. Shanahan First Course Complex Anal. iv. 180 The image of the fundamental region under the exponential mapping consists of the collection of all circles centered at the origin with nonzero radius.
a. Of or forming the foundations or base of a building; esp. designating the cornerstone of a building (frequently in figurative contexts with reference to Christ). Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > relative position > low position > [adjective] > relating to or forming a base
bottom1561
fundamental1581
basal1828
basial1836
substructural1837
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > a building > parts of building > [adjective] > foundation
fundamental1581
1581 T. Newton tr. M. Luther Comm. Epist. St. Peter & St. Jude ii. f. 42 Christe is that precious fundamentall or Corner stone [L. Christum esse preciosum, angularem, siue fundamentalem lapidem].
1611 T. Coryate Crudities sig. Pp Conrade..placed the first fundamentall stone with his owne handes.
1632 W. Lithgow Totall Disc. Trav. iii. 123 The fundamentall walls yet extant.
a1653 Z. Boyd Zion's Flowers (1855) Introd. 50 Christ the fundamental stone.
1769 Middlesex Jrnl. 12–14 Sept. 2/2 Near 300l. expended in fundamental repairs [of a tavern].
1855 J. B. Pagani End of World v. i. 279 God..placed Him in the midst of mankind as a corner and fundamental stone.
1878 P. Costello tr. A. Maurel Church & Sovereign Pontiff xv. 193 The fundamental stone rules and sustains the edifice.
b. Of a dwelling: having a foundation; fixed, not temporary. Obsolete. rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > movement > absence of movement > [adjective] > remaining in one place
stablea1400
dormantc1440
standing1469
remanent?a1475
ledger1547
fixed1559
restiff1578
statary1581
permanent1588
consistent1604
stationary1631
fundamental1633
resident1653
sedentary1667
statual1752
loco-restive1796
untransmigrated1821
stabile1896
static1910
sessile1917
1633 T. Adams Comm. 2 Peter (i. 18) 333 Let us build here three Tabernacles, moveable tilths? No; fundamentall and constant habitations.
1703 D. Russen Iter Lunare 137 Their Moveable, and Fundamental or fixed Houses, are an ingenious Contrivance.
6. Relating to the essential nature of something; going to the root of the matter.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > causation > basis or foundation > [adjective]
fundamental1588
primal1619
groundinga1641
radical1648
radicative1657
ultimate1659
substrated1663
substrate1678
foundational1683
principial1699
basic1846
basal1866
substratal1881
nuclear1912
gut1964
blue skies1985
1588 S. Bredwell Rasing Found. Brownisme 81 Now that faith doth engraffe and vnite vs vnto Christ..I needed not at all stand heere to prooue, if there were not in this man against whom I deale, a iust suspition of fundamentall Apostacie heerein.
1590 G. Gifford Plain Declar. 83 We doo not take it that the spots doo make it a true Church, but because there bee onely spottes and not fundamentall errors?
1591 H. Savile Annot. vpon Tacitus 42 in tr. Tacitus Ende of Nero: Fower Bks. Hist. One of the fundamentall diuisions in the Roman state was in Patres, siue Patritios & plebeios.
1658 W. Johnson tr. F. Würtz Surgeons Guid i. vi. 25 The true signs, whereby you may have a fundamental information of a wounds condition.
1659 J. Pearson Expos. Apostles Creed i. 6 If there be any fundamentall distinction in the Authority of the Testimony.
1709 G. Berkeley Ess. New Theory of Vision 39 The not considering of this has been a fundamental and perplexing Oversight.
1781 J. Moore View Society & Manners Italy I. viii. 80 Before they could submit to such a fundamental change in the nature of their constitution.
1860 J. Tyndall Glaciers of Alps ii. i. 227 The fundamental analogy of sound and light is thus before us.
1868 M. Pattison Suggestions Acad. Organisation v. 120 The consideration involves the fundamental question of what is a University.
1940 B. Leach Potter's Bk. iii. 43 The raw material of which pots are made is of fundamental importance.
1991 N. Mailer Harlot's Ghost iv. xv. 559 There's a fundamental flaw in the test.
1992 Economist 22 Feb. 91/1 To improve productivity, profitability and quality in a fundamental way, companies must strip out underlying operating inefficiencies, not just sack the odd employee.
2011 N.Y. Times 17 Dec. (Late ed.) a17/1 Fundamental differences about the role of government in American life deeply divide the parties.
7. Music and Acoustics.
a. Designating the root or lowest note of a chord in its original (uninverted) form; belonging to the lowest note of a chord. Also: †designating the lowest note of a scale (obsolete).
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > music > musical sound > harmony or sounds in combination > chord > [adjective] > root of chord
fundamental1610
radical1721
supertonic1867
rooted1883
1610 T. Campion New Way Counter-point sig. D6 They can challenge but two proper closes, one in the lowest Note of the fift which is the fundamentall key.
1762 Public Advertiser 8 Oct. Every Musician plays in some Key..and concludes in the fundamental Key-Note.
1781 J. Maxwell Ess. upon Tune App. 279 If these passages are restricted..and the fundamental notes of the harmony alone used for the bass..there is a necessity for admitting some quantities..which have not hitherto been examined.
1943 Musical Q. 29 15 The lower ones [sc. resonances] are obtained by considering the fundamental tone of the chord as the seventh, fifth, or third of a new fundamental.
1996 Basix Keyboard Chord Dict. 36 Use your left hand to play the fundamental note (or root) or alternate bass note while playing the chords in your right hand.
b. Designating the lowest tone that an object can produce by resonant oscillation where the whole body is vibrating together, as distinct from the harmonics (harmonic n. 2); relating to such a tone. Cf. fundamental frequency n. at Compounds 2.
ΚΠ
1742 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 42 268 There are in the vibrated String all the Harmonies or Chords at once, which compose the fundamental Sound.
1775 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 65 75 The lower minims are fifths to the fundamental sounds of these pipes.
1832 D. Brewster Lett. Nat. Magic viii. 181 This sound is called the fundamental sound of the string.
1876 tr. P. Blaserna Theory Sound i. 18 The note is the lowest that the pipe can give, for which reason it is called the fundamental note of the pipe.
1889 E. Prout Harmony ix. §197 88 We here meet..with a ‘fundamental discord’,..that is, a discord composed of the harmonics of the fundamental tone or generator.
1908 Science 29 May 843/1 Two musical tones..therefore affect areas of the diaphragm which overlap each other in a more or less complicated manner, depending on the relative frequencies of the fundamental tones and the relationships of their upper partials.
1940 Music Educators Jrnl. 26 79/1 Changing the fundamental pitch of this instrument has little or no effect on its overtone structure.
2006 Early Music 34 369/1 This relatively soft medium provides an ideal balance between the fundamental note and the higher secondary pitch generated by the tapping itself.
8. Chiefly humorous. Of or relating to the buttocks or anus. See fundament n. 2.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > external parts of body > trunk > back > buttock(s) > [adjective]
buttockeda1425
posterial?a1475
arsed1542
bummed1611
fundamentala1654
natiform1681
sedal1681
natal1870
a1654 N. Culpeper School of Physick (1659) 226 It may be safer to use Horsleeches, especially at the Fundamental Veins, which are called the sink of the body.
1662 R. Watkins Flamma sine Fumo 141 Of this disease if you the Symptomes need, The fundamental veins break forth and bleed.
1663 R. Head Hic et Ubique i. v. 15 The natives yeild submission to the God, for which the goddess punisht 'em with an hereditary disease, called the fundamental thorow-goe-nimble.
1716 Hesperi-neso-graphia vii. 40 Your Horn did dart Into my fundamental Part.
1767 A. Campbell Lexiphanes 63 I lingered behind, detained by my fundamental malady.
1828 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. 24 184 He fixes his fundamental feature upon the outer edge of a chair.
a1849 E. Elliott More Verse & Prose (1850) II. 53 Stiff he rear'd His fundamental plume!
2013 ‘Erastes’ Standish (rev. ed.) xvii. 125 Did your Ambrose let you take him like this? Or was he less ‘fundamental’ in his tastes?
9. Geology. Of a rock: forming the lowest stratum; lying at the bottom. Now historical.Cf. fundamental complex n. at Compounds 2.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > structure of the earth > structural features > sedimentary formation > [adjective] > of or belonging to a stratum > underlying or bottom
fundamental1791
submedial1822
hypozoic1865
1791 Monthly Rev. 4 491 It by no means follows that the porphyry, the gneiss, or the schist..is of equal antiquity with this fundamental rock.
1799 R. Kirwan Geol. Ess. 42 Mr. Eversman..tells us that the fundamental rock of Scotland is a mass of the granitic kind.
1830 C. Lyell Princ. Geol. I. 202 The fundamental rock..is a black slate.
1862 W. Fairbairn in Rep. 31st Meeting Brit. Assoc. Advancem. Sci. 1861 p. lvi He has proved the existence of a fundamental gneiss, on which all the other rocks repose.
2009 R. S. Sharma Cratons & Fold Belts India ii. 45 W. F. Smeeth..suggested that the gneisses were intrusive into the schists and hence not the Fundamental Gneiss.
B. n.
1.
a. A basic or primary principle, rule, law, or article, which serves as the groundwork of a system; an essential part. Chiefly in plural.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > existence > intrinsicality or inherence > essence or intrinsic nature > [noun] > essential elements
substantialsa1398
internala1594
formal1605
fundamental1617
materialsa1631
essentials1663
hardtack1888
basic1934
funda1989
1617 tr. M. A. de Dominis Serm. upon Romanes xiii. 12 31 The Religion of both is in the maine essentials and fundamentals the very same.
1641 ‘Smectymnuus’ Vindic. Answer Hvmble Remonstr. iv. 60 How then is Episcopacie one of the fundamentals of the kingdome?
1650 H. Brooke Υγιεινη 24 A Fundamentall in Physic.
1707 R. Nelson Compan. Festivals & Fasts (ed. 4) ii. vii. 540 The same Apostle mentions as a Fundamental, not only..Baptism, but also the laying on of Hands.
1768 Adventures Miss Lucy Watson viii. 50 I have explained..how infinitely even common sense and morals are to be deduced from the fundamentals of it [sc. chess].
1856 C. Merivale Hist. Romans under Empire IV. xxxix. 389 They permitted but little deviation..from these great fundamentals.
1864 J. H. Burton Scot Abroad I. i. 16 There is an odd tenacity of life in the fundamentals of..legends.
1878 J. Morley Vauvenargues 11 Very faint and doubtful as to even the fundamentals—God, immortality, and the like.
1940 High School Jrnl. 23 30 We cannot help but feel that our students by and large are not sufficiently well grounded in the fundamentals.
1966 R. J. Mills & E. Butler Mod. Badminton iii. 28 The fundamental of any racket game is a correct grip.
1977 National Observer (U.S.) 8 Jan. 3/1 The campaign to give the highest priority to the teaching of the fundamentals of reading, writing, and arithmetic.
2007 Vanity Fair Nov. 136/1 The Elements of Cooking..tutors cooks in such fundamentals as the five essential tools.
b. In plural. Fundamental requisites; necessities.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > will > necessity > condition of being necessary > [noun] > that which is necessary > necessaries
necessarya1382
necessars1386
necessity?1406
mister1477
needment1590
implements1612
needfuls1614
vitals1657
essentiality1710
fundamentals1864
needcessities1874
1864 E. Burritt Walk to John O'Groats 378 Bread, bacon, and butter. Their stock of these fundamentals was exhausted.
1955 Times 24 Jan. 2/6 Australia is blessed with an abundance of the fundamentals for her existing population: food, clothing, and for the most part a tolerable climate.
2016 Spokesman-Rev. (Spokane, Washington) (Nexis) 16 Apr. b2 Her son gave her two of life's fundamentals, safe shelter and clean water, in a nation with the world's largest economy.
c. Finance. Any of a number of factors, such as underlying economic and industry conditions and company-specific data, which are evaluated as a means to identify market trends and forecast developments in the value of an investment. Chiefly in plural. Cf. sense A. 1c.
ΚΠ
1897 Hutchinson (Kansas) News 31 Dec. 8/2 More mention will be paid in [the crop bulletins of the department of agriculture]..to the fundamentals and less to the speculative features.
1930 G. G. Munn Meeting the Bear Market ix. 124 There is little in the fundamentals to suggest how much higher, if any, stocks will go.
1974 Daily Tel. 7 Jan. 13/3 Future gold price prospects far outweigh individual share fundamentals.
2011 Review (Rio Tinto) Dec. 14/2 Whilst we are mindful of current market volatility, the fundamentals are holding up well, particularly for bulk-traded commodities.
2. Music and Acoustics. A fundamental note or tone (see sense A. 7). Also: †the lowest note of a scale, the keynote (obsolete).
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > music > musical sound > harmony or sounds in combination > chord > [noun] > root of chord
radix1673
fundamental1721
generator?1775
root1806
pedal1854
ground-note1877
1721 A. Malcolm Treat. Musick v. 171 I suppose 1 to be a common fundamental Chord, and express the acute Term of each Concord by that Fraction or Part of the Fundamental that makes such Concord with it.
1728 E. Chambers Cycl. Fundamental, in Music, the principal Note of a Song, or Composition, to which all the rest are in some measure adapted, and by which they are sway'd; call'd also the Key of the Song.
1833 J. G. Macvicar Inq. conc. Medium of Light 130 This note seems to me..to possess a very peculiar character; and when ascending the scale, to form a limit of repose to which the ear seeks as soon as the fundamental is sounded.
1873 Musical Times 15 752/1 All the negative intervals, with one exception, the minor sixth, give also the same fundamental.
1916 W. J. McCoy Cumulative Harmony xlii. 278 The fundamentals of all chords of the 7th are naturally inclined toward other fundamentals located a perfect fourth higher.
1935 Auk 52 41 The lower suppressed tones, be they harmonics or actual fundamentals, have been called undertones.
2008 A. D. Patel Music, Lang., & Brain ii. 88 According to this theory, the octave is maximally consonant because the fundamental and all the harmonics of the upper tone line up exactly with harmonics of the lower.
Compounds
C1. Chiefly Mathematics. In the names of theorems regarded as forming the basis of, or being essential to, a particular area of study, as fundamental theorem of algebra, fundamental theorem of arithmetic, fundamental theorem of calculus, fundamental theorem of natural selection, etc.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > number > geometry > [adjective] > of geometrical relation > from which others derive
primitive1728
fundamental1832
projective1885
1832 J. R. Young Elements Mech. i. i. 11 The fundamental theorem of statics, when expressed algebraically, is precisely that which is also the fundamental theorem of plane trigonometry.
1878 London, Edinb. & Dublin Philos. Mag. 5th Ser. 5 178 Proof of the hitherto undemonstrated Fundamental Theorem of Invariants.
1886 Amer. Jrnl. Math. 9 38 It may not be uninteresting as an application to geometry of the fundamental theorem of algebra.
1935 Proc. Edinb. Math. Soc. 4 113 Cauchy's theorem may be considered as the extension to complex variables of the fundamental theorem of calculus.
1968 Amer. Anthropologist 70 1240/2 Sir Ronald Fisher advanced a theorem that he modestly termed the Fundamental Theorem of Natural Selection.
1992 Econ. Jrnl. 102 813 According to the fundamental theorem of economics of exhaustible resources.., on an optimal path, price minus marginal extraction cost..should steadily grow over time at the social rate of discount.
2005 G. Everest & T. Ward Introd. Number Theory i. 35 We uncover Euclid's real genius once we try to prove the Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic.
C2.
fundamental analysis n. Finance analysis of factors such as underlying economic and industry conditions and company-specific data as a means of identifying trends and forecasting developments in the value of an investment, esp. as opposed to analysis of patterns in market data (cf. technical analysis n. at technical adj. and n. Compounds); an instance of this; cf. sense A. 1c.
ΚΠ
1917 N.Y. Times 12 Mar. 13/6 (advt.) Every investment should be subject to a fundamental analysis. Let us help you buy bonds which have an intrinsic value that is often greater than their market price.
1954 J. A. Schumpeter Hist. Econ. Anal. vi. 589 Nobody raised the theoretical question whether it is really possible or admissible to carry out the fundamental analysis of the price system in terms of exchange ratios or relative prices alone.
2009 New Yorker 12 Oct. 68/1 The first is fundamental analysis—you evaluate, say, a company or a security, and draw conclusions about its prospects, and assign it the value and the price you think suit it best.
fundamental bass n. Music a (theoretical) bass line consisting of the roots of a series of chords.
ΚΠ
1730 Short Treat. Harmony i. 7 By making use of the Fundamental and of the supposed Basses as Occasion requires, We are enabled to make the Parts move the more by Degrees.
1737 tr. J.-P. Rameau Treat. Music ii. 11 (heading) Of the Fundamental Bass [Fr. De la Basse-fondamentale].
1828 T. Busby Mus. Man. Fundamental Bass, that bass on which the superincumbent harmony is founded; or of which the superior parts of the accompanying chord constitute the third, fifth, and eighth.
1998 T. Christensen in M. Marissen Bach Perspectives III. 35 All tonal music could be reduced to a small number of logically related harmonic entities whose succession was controlled by an underlying fundamental bass.
fundamental chord n. [after French accord fondamental (1722 in the passage translated in quot. 1737)] Music (now chiefly historical) a chord in which the lowest note is that from which the chord is derived.
ΚΠ
1737 tr. J.-P. Rameau Treat. Music x. 31 The Chords..compared to one or the other Bass, will be always the same in the main, their Difference proceeding from the Liberty of placing in the Bass any one of the Notes contained in the fundamental Chords [Fr. les Accords fondamentaux].
1828 T. Busby Mus. Man. Fundamental Chord, a chord consisting of the third, fifth and eighth, of the fundamental bass.
1889 E. Prout Harmony iii. §61 Our ‘fundamental chord’—that is, a chord composed of the harmonics of its fundamental tone, or generator.
1987 Music & Lett. 68 271 A distinction is also made between fundamental chords and their inversions.
fundamental complex n. Geology (now disused) an assemblage of rocks forming the lowest layers of the Precambrian strata and constituting the oldest rocks of the earth's crust; cf. Archaean adj.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > structure of the earth > [noun] > fundamental complex
basement complex1887
fundamental complex1890
basal complex1897
1890 Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer. 1 235 The only authorities who at the present time maintain that they have shown that any rocks apparently belonging to this fundamental complex are water-deposited clastics.
1893 A. Geikie Text-bk. Geol. (ed. 3) II. vi. i. 715 The pre-Cambrian rocks..may be divided into two great series. At the base lies a vast mass of gneisses, schists, and eruptive rocks, which, known as the ‘Fundamental Complex’, is regarded as the oldest of the whole.
1910 Encycl. Brit. II. 361/1 The so-called ‘fundamental complex’, an assemblage of acid, basic and intermediate irruptive rocks, associated together in a complex of extraordinary intricacy.
1961 L. D. Stamp Gloss. Geogr. Terms 202/2 Fundamental complex, in geology the rocks of the ‘original’ crust of the earth formerly applied to the great areas of pre-Cambrian crystalline rocks. It is still used although it is now recognized that probably no part represents the ‘original’ crust of the earth.
fundamental force n. [in quot. 1838 after German Grundkraft (1781 in Kant in this sense, in the passage translated)] chiefly Physics (originally) a force of which (all) other forces can be viewed as particular aspects or manifestations; (in later use) any of several forces in nature which do not arise as manifestations of other forces, and which are regarded collectively as mediating, in one form or another, all known physical interactions.Physicists currently identify four fundamental forces: the strong force, the weak force, electromagnetic force, and gravity.In quot. 1838 with reference to intellectual powers as forces.
ΚΠ
1838 F. Haywood tr. I. Kant Critick Pure Reason i. 493 The comparative fundamental forces [Ger. Grundkräfte] must again be compared with one another, in order thereby, as we discover their harmony, to approximate them to a single radical, that is absolute fundamental force [Ger. Grundkraft].
1869 Westm. Rev. July 275 The notion that all the physical forces are to be regarded as varying manifestations of one fundamental force has not unfrequently been entertained.
1921 Nature 17 Feb. 800/1 Modern physics renders it probable that the only fundamental forces in Nature are those which have their origin in gravitation and in the electromagnetic field.
1979 Sci. Amer. Feb. 88/3 A Yang–Mills field is the essential element in a theory that seems to unify two of the four fundamental forces of nature, the weak force and the electromagnetic one.
2014 New Yorker 3 Mar. 46/2 As protons get very near..another fundamental force, called the strong force, takes over.
fundamental frequency n. (a) Music and Acoustics the frequency of the lowest tone that an object can produce by resonant oscillation where the whole body is vibrating together, of which the harmonic frequencies are multiples (cf. sense A. 7b); (b) Physics (in a complex periodic waveform) the greatest common factor of the frequencies of each sinusoidal component (cf. Fourier's law at Fourier n.).
ΚΠ
1872 J. D. Everett Deschanel's Elem. Treat. Nat. Philos. IV. lv. 832 A highly trained ear can detect the presence of other notes, corresponding to..multiples of the fundamental frequency of vibration.
1893 Amer. Jrnl. Sci. 145 328 In addition to the alternating current of the fundamental frequency there are also..higher harmonic currents.
1948 Proc. Royal Soc. A. 192 597 The frequency spectrum simply consists of the harmonics of an extremely low fundamental frequency and thus is practically continuous in the relevant part of the spectrum.
1980 Word 31 151 Fundamental frequency is only one of the acoustic determinants of perceived pitch.
2014 Arctic 67 208/1 Growls [of ringed seals] often have two or three harmonic bands, [and] a lower fundamental frequency than barks.
fundamental matrix n. Mathematics †(a) a matrix considered in relation to those obtained by rearranging and/or deleting one or more of its rows or columns (obsolete rare); (b) a matrix whose columns are linearly independent solutions of a system of homogeneous linear ordinary differential equations.
ΚΠ
1913 C. E. Cullis Matrices & Determinoids I. iv. 86 Any matrix (or any determinoid) will be called a fundamental matrix (or a fundamental determinoid) with respect to the derived matrices and the derived determinoids belonging to it.
1925 Amer. Jrnl. Math. 47 106 (header) The Fundamental Matrix and Its Properties.
1971 Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 154 438 These solutions, written consecutively in columns, form the fundamental matrix.
2012 W. A. Adkins & M. G. Davidson Ordinary Differential Equations ix. 713 Computing a fundamental matrix is not always an easy task.
fundamental particle n. chiefly Physics (originally) an atom, regarded as an indivisible constituent part of matter; (in later use) any of various subatomic particles which are not (known to be) composed of other particles; cf. elementary particle n. at elementary adj. 6a.In the current Standard Model of particle physics, fundamental particles are divided into three classes: quarks and leptons (and their antimatter counterparts), and elementary bosons.
ΚΠ
1901 Rep. Brit. Assoc. Advancem. Sci. 13 If heat be motion there can be no doubt that it is the fundamental particles of matter [sc. atoms] which are moving.
1933 Sci. Monthly May 467/2 Is the neutron a fundamental particle rather than a positive proton and a negative electron in a close combination?
2017 P. Langacker Can Laws of Physics be Unified? i. 4 The neutrinos, initially thought to be massless, are now observed to have nonzero masses much smaller than those of the other fundamental particles.
fundamental tissue n. [after French tissu fondamental ( A. Richard Nouveaux élémens de botanique, apliquée à la médecine (1819) 10)] Botany tissue in a plant that is not dermal or vascular; undifferentiated or unspecialized tissue; = ground-tissue n. at ground n. Compounds 2a.
ΚΠ
1831 W. Macgillivray tr. A. Richard Elem. Bot. 13 The parenchymatous and fibrous tissues..constitute the different organs of vegetables. In all, in fact, we find by analysis, only these two essential modifications of the fundamental tissue.
1894 G. M. Gould Illustr. Dict. Med. Fundamental tissue, in biology, unspecialized parenchyma; those tissues of a plant through which the fibro-vascular bundles are distributed.
1960 Amer. Jrnl. Bot. 47 531/2 No large binucleate cells..were found in the fundamental tissue of the petiole.
2002 T. T. Salgado & J. D. Mauseth in P. S. Nobel Cacti ii. 26/1 For nearly all cacti, the cortex is the most prominent region of the fundamental tissue.
fundamental unit n. any of a collection of units in a system of measurement which are defined in terms of a physical object, property, or phenomenon, and from which other units in that system are derived, esp. (in later use) those of the International System of Units; cf. base unit n. 1.
ΚΠ
1807 P. S. Laplace in T. Young Course Lect. Nat. Philos. I. x. 109 The fundamental unit of linear measures must be an aliquot part of the terrestrial meridian, which must correspond to one of the divisions of the circumference of a circle.
1940 Chambers's Techn. Dict. 3/1 Absolute unit, a unit which may be defined directly in terms of the fundamental units of length, mass, and time.
2015 L. Dartnell Knowledge xiii. 277 This international system of units..defines just seven fundamental units, including those for length, mass, time and temperature.
Derivatives
fundaˈmentalness n.
ΚΠ
1651 S. Eaton Vindication 251 The fundamentalness of the errour of denying the Godhead.
1854 S. Judd Church xii. 232 All vitality, all essentiality, all fundamentalness of doctrine and belief, is contained in this.
1881 Princeton Rev. Nov. 327 We need mention but a few [scales], all of which recognize the fundamentalness of the octave.
2008 Proc. Aristotelian Soc. 108 66 I shall not take a firm line yet on either linguistic/conceptual or metaphysical fundamentalness.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2017; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
<
adj.n.c1443