fungus

English

Etymology

From Latin fungus (“mushroom”). Compare Ancient Greek σπόγγος (spóngos).

Picture dictionary

organism

mold

mushroom

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈfʌŋ.ɡəs/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌŋɡəs

Noun

fungus (plural fungi or funguses)

1. (mycology) Any member of the kingdom Fungi; a eukaryotic organism typically having chitin cell walls but no chlorophyll or plastids. Fungi may be unicellular or multicellular.
   • 2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:

     Plastics are energy-rich substances, which is why many of them burn so readily. Any organism that could unlock and use that energy would do well in the Anthropocene. Terrestrial bacteria and fungi which can manage this trick are already familiar to experts in the field.

Synonyms

• mold, mushroom

Hyponyms

• ascomycete, basidiomycete, mushroom, toadstool, yeast

Derived terms

Terms derived from fungus

• bracket fungus
• fungal

• fungicidal
• fungicide

• fungoid
• jelly fungus

Related terms

• fungous

Translations

any member of the kingdom Fungi

• Albanian: këpurdhë
• Alemannic German: Pilz m
• Arabic: فُطْر‏‎ m (fuṭr)

  Egyptian Arabic: فطر‏‎ m (feṭr)

• Armenian: սունկ (hy) (sunk), սնկիկ (hy) (snkik), բորբոս (hy) (borbos)
• Asturian: fungu m
• Azeri: göbələk (az)
• Bashkir: бәшмәктәр (bäšmäktär)
• Bengali: ছত্রাক (bn) (chôtrak)
• Bulgarian: гъба (bg) f (gǎba)
• Catalan: fong (ca)
• Central Melanau: kulat
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 菌類 (zh), 菌类 (zh) (jūnlèi), 真菌 (zh) (zhēnjūn)

  Min Nan: ko͘

• Chuvash: кăмпа (kămpa)
• Czech: houba (cs) f
• Danish: svamp (da) c
• Dutch: zwam (nl) m
• Erzya: пангт (pangt)
• Esperanto: fungo (eo)
• Estonian: seen (et)
• Faroese: soppur
• Finnish: sieni (fi)
• French: fongus (fr) m
• Georgian: სოკო (soḳo)
• German: Pilz (de) m
• Greek: μύκητας (el) m (mýkitas)
• Hawaiian: kalina
• Hebrew: פטרייה‏‎ f (pitriyа́)
• Hindi: कुकुरमुत्ता (kukurmuttā), फफूंद (phaphūnd)
• Hungarian: gombaféle, gomba (hu)
• Iban: kulat
• Icelandic: sveppur (is)
• Irish: fungas m
• Italian: fungo (it)
• Japanese: 菌類 (ja) (きんるい, kinrui), 真菌 (ja) (しんきん, shinkin), 茸 (ja) (きのこ, kinoko)
• Korean: 균계 (gyun-gye)
• Latin: fungus

• Latvian: sēnes (lv)
• Lingala: liyɛbú
• Lithuanian: grybas (lt)
• Low German: poggenstöhl
• Luxembourgish: Pilzeräich
• Macedonian: габа f (gaba)
• Malay: kulat
• Manx: fungys m
• Maori: harore, hekaheka
• Nahuatl: nanacatl (nah)
• Northern Sami: guobbarat
• Norwegian: sopp
• Occitan: mycota
• Persian: قارچ‏‎ (fa) (qârč)
• Polish: grzyb (pl) m
• Portuguese: fungo (pt) m
• Quechua: k'allampa (qu)
• Romanian: ciupercă (ro) f
• Russian: гриб (ru) m (grib), грибо́к (ru) m (gribók)
• Samogitian: kremblē
• Sardinian: cordolinu
• Scottish Gaelic: fungas m
• Serbo-Croatian: gljȉva (sh) f
• Slovak: huba (sk) f
• Spanish: hongo (es) m
• Swedish: svamp (sv)
• Tagalog: halamang-singaw, buot, apugaw, kolatkolat
• Tamil: பூஞ்சைகள் (pūñcaikaḷ)
• Telugu: శిలీంధ్రం (śilīṃdhraṃ)
• Thai: เห็ดรา (hèt-raa)
• Tongan: talingelinga
• Turkish: mantar (tr)
• Ukrainian: гриб (uk) m (hryb), грибо́к (hrybók) (microscopic, non formal)
• Vietnamese: nấm (vi)
• Volapük: funig (vo)
• Walloon: tchampion (wa)
• Welsh: ffwng m
• Westrobothnian: sópp m, sapp m
• Yiddish: פֿונגוס‏‎ m (fungus), שוואָם‏‎ m f (shvom)

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Latin

fungus (a mushroom)

Etymology

Originally sfungus. Likely a loanword from a non-Indo-European substrate language. Compare Ancient Greek σπόγγος (spóngos) (whence Latin spongia) and Old Armenian սունկն (sunkn).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈfun.ɡus/, [ˈfʊŋ.ɡʊs]

Noun

fungus m (genitive fungī); second declension

1. a mushroom; a fungus
2. a fungal growth or infection
3. a candle-snuff
4. (figuratively) dolt, idiot

Inflection

Second declension.

Case	Singular	Plural
nominative	fungus	fungī
genitive	fungī	fungōrum
dative	fungō	fungīs
accusative	fungum	fungōs
ablative	fungō	fungīs
vocative	funge	fungī

Derived terms

• fungīnus
• fungōsus
• fungulus

Related terms

• fungidus

Descendants

• Asturian: fungu
• Catalan: fong
• English: fungus
• French: fongus
• Friulian: fonc, fong
• Galician: fungo
• Irish: fungas

• Italian: fungo
• Portuguese: fungo
• Romanian: fungă
• Sicilian: funcia, fungia
• Spanish: hongo
• Venetian: fongo, fonc

References

• De Vaan, Michiel (2008) Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill
• fungus in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• fungus in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• du Cange, Charles (1883), “fungus”, in G. A. Louis Henschel, Pierre Carpentier, Léopold Favre, editors, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (in Latin), Niort: L. Favre
• “fungus” in Félix Gaffiot’s Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette (1934)
• Carl Meissner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • (ambiguous) to perform the last rites for a person: supremo officio in aliquem fungi
    
  • (ambiguous) to live a perfect life: virtutis perfectae perfecto munere fungi (Tusc. 1. 45. 109)
    
  • (ambiguous) to do one's duty: officio suo fungi
    
  • (ambiguous) to perform official duties: munere fungi, muneri praeesse