fun
English edit
Etymology edit
From Middle English fonne, fon (“foolish, simple, silly”) or fonnen (“make a fool of”), from Middle English fonne (“a fool, dupe”), probably of North Germanic origin, related to Swedish fånig (“foolish”), Swedish fåne (“a fool”), from Old Norse fáni (“vain person, swaggerer”), but of unknown ultimate origin. Perhaps related to or influenced by fjäll (“rock, cliff, mountain”).[1] Compare also English fumble, Norwegian Nynorsk fomme (“clumsy fool”).
Compare also Norwegian fomme, fume (“a fool”). More at fon, fond.
As a noun, fun is recorded from 1700, with a meaning “a cheat, trick, hoax”, from a verb fun meaning “to cheat, trick” (1680s). The meaning “diversion, amusement” dates to the 1720s. The older meaning is preserved in the phrase to make fun of (1737) and in usage of the adjective funny. The use of fun as adjective is newest and is due to reanalysis of the noun; this was incipient in the mid-19th century.
Alternative etymology connected Middle English fonne with Old Frisian fonna, fone, fomne, variant forms of fāmne, fēmne (“young woman, virgin”), from Proto-West Germanic *faimnijā, from Proto-Germanic *faimnijǭ (“maiden”), from Proto-Indo-European *peymen- (“girl”), *poymen- (“breast milk”). If so, then cognate with Old English fǣmne (“maid, virgin, damsel, bride”), West Frisian famke (“girl”), Saterland Frisian fone, fon (“woman, maid, servant," also "weakling, simpleton”).
Pronunciation edit
- (US, UK) enPR: fŭn, IPA(key): /fʌn/
- (Northern England, Ireland) IPA(key): /fʊn/
Audio (US): (file) - Rhymes: -ʌn
Noun edit
fun (uncountable)
- Amusement, enjoyment or pleasure.
- 2000, Robert Stanley, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Adobe Photoshop 6, Alpha Books, page 377:
- Grafting your boss's face onto the hind end of a donkey is fun, but serious fun is when you create the impossible and it looks real.
- Playful, often noisy, activity.
- Synonyms: boisterousness, horseplay, rough and tumble
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
|
|
Adjective edit
fun (comparative more fun or funner, superlative most fun or funnest)
- (informal) Enjoyable or amusing.
- We had a fun time at the party.
- He is such a fun person to be with.
- 2016 January 11, Tom Bateman, quoted in Nigel Hunt, "Jekyll and Hyde, TV revamp of Robert Louis Stevenson classic, debuts on CBC-TV" CBC News, Canada:
- He's the liberated character that everyone wants to be, so he was very fun to play
- (informal) Whimsical or flamboyant.
- This year's fashion style is much more fun than recent seasons.
Usage notes edit
- Note that, prescriptively, the adjectival use of fun, instead of funny as in a funny movie, is often considered unacceptable in formal contexts. This includes censure of the comparative and superlative funner and funnest, but equally constructions such as very fun (rather than, say, a lot of fun). For more, see Quinion's discussion.
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
|
Verb edit
fun (third-person singular simple present funs, present participle funning, simple past and past participle funned)
- (colloquial) To tease, kid, poke fun at, make fun of.
- Hey, don't get bent out of shape over it; I was just funning you.
Translations edit
See also edit
References edit
Anagrams edit
Chibcha edit
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
fun
- Alternative form of bun
References edit
- Gómez Aldana D. F., Análisis morfológico del Vocabulario 158 de la Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia. Grupo de Investigación Muysccubun. 2013.
French edit
Etymology edit
Pronunciation edit
Adjective edit
fun (invariable)
- (colloquial) fun
- C’était juste pour le fun.
- It was just for fun.
Galician edit
Etymology 1 edit
See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.
Verb edit
fun
Etymology 2 edit
See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.
Verb edit
fun
Japanese edit
Romanization edit
fun
Tboli edit
Noun edit
fun
Yoruba edit
Verb edit
fún
Preposition edit
fún
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from North Germanic languages
- English terms derived from Old Norse
- English terms with unknown etymologies
- English terms derived from Old Frisian
- English terms derived from Proto-West Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/ʌn
- Rhymes:English/ʌn/1 syllable
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- English adjectives
- English informal terms
- English verbs
- English colloquialisms
- Chibcha terms with IPA pronunciation
- Chibcha lemmas
- Chibcha nouns
- French terms borrowed from English
- French terms derived from English
- French 1-syllable words
- French terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:French/œn
- French lemmas
- French adjectives
- French colloquialisms
- French terms with usage examples
- Galician non-lemma forms
- Galician verb forms
- Japanese non-lemma forms
- Japanese romanizations
- Tboli lemmas
- Tboli nouns
- Yoruba lemmas
- Yoruba verbs
- Yoruba prepositions