fond
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /fɒnd/
ipa: /fɑnd/
rhymes: -ɒnd
homophone: fawned (cot–caught merger)
Forms: form: fonder
form: fondest
Etymology: From Middle English fond, fonned, past participle of fonnen (“to be foolish, be simple, dote”), equivalent to fon + -ed. More at fon.
Senses: examples: text: I am fond of this song!
text: more fond on her than she upon her love
ref: c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
text: a great traveller, and fond of telling his adventures
ref: 1824, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], Tales of a Traveller, (please specify |part=1 to 4), Philadelphia, Pa.: H[enry] C[harles] Carey & I[saac] Lea, […], →OCLC:
glosses: Having a liking or affection (for).
examples: text: a fond farewell
text: a fond mother or wife
glosses: Affectionate.
examples: text: I have fond grandparents who spoil me.
text: “The story of this adoption is, of course, the pivot round which all the circumstances of the mysterious tragedy revolved. Mrs. Yule had an only son, namely, William, to whom she was passionately attached ; but, like many a fond mother, she had the desire of mapping out that son's future entirely according to her own ideas.[…]”
ref: 1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Tragedy in Dartmoor Terrace”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020:
glosses: Indulgent, doting.
examples: text: Your fond dreams of flying to Jupiter have been quashed by the facts of reality.
glosses: Outlandish; foolish; silly.
examples: text: If you are so fond over her iniquity, give her patent
to offend, for if it touch not you, it comes near
nobody.
ref: c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:
text: Grant I may never prove so fond
To trust man on his oath or bond.
ref: c. 1605–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:
text: [T]hou seest
How suttly to detaine thee I devise,
Inviting thee to hear while I relate,
Fond, were it not in hope of thy reply …
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
text: But reason with your fond religion fights,
For many gods are many infinites …
ref: 1669, John Dryden, Tyrannic Love, III.ii:
text: The foolish, fond Old Year,
ref: 1839, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Midnight Mass For the Dying Year:
glosses: Foolish; simple; weak.
examples: text: Nor fix on fond abodes to circumscribe thy prayer.
ref: 1812–1818, Lord Byron, “(please specify |canto=I to IV)”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. , London: John Murray,, (please specify the stanza number):
glosses: Doted on; regarded with affection.
Derived terms: fondish
fondling
fondly
fondness
fondsome
overfond
unfond