Cofounders

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Individuals who together establish a business, institution or organization from its very beginning
2. Partners who start an enterprise jointly and share responsibility for setting it up
3. Those who co-create a company or group alongside others, sharing in its founding

Etymology: The word is simply "co-" attached to "founder", with no older history behind the compound itself. The prefix "co-" comes from Latin "con-", meaning "together" or "with", and it is the same prefix found in words like "cooperate" and "coexist". Its appearance in English is familiar enough that "cofounder" reads almost like a transparent label for two or more people starting something together. The base word, "founder", descends from Old French and ultimately from Latin "fundare", "to lay a foundation", from "fundus", "bottom" or "base". Its older English senses included a person who casts metal, which connects it to the idea of pouring something into a mould, and "send down" is another sense that appears among its historical meanings. Each of these traces back to the same notion of a firm base being laid, whether for a building, a casting or an institution. Put together, "cofounders" is the plural of a compound that joins a Latin prefix to an English word built on a Latin root, so the idea of building together is carried in both halves of the word.

Synonyms: founder, originator, initiator, creator, establisher