Profundus

Part of speech: adjective, noun

Definitions

1. A term often used in anatomy to refer to structures that are deep or situated away from the surface; it can also denote something that is profound, significant, or of great depth in thought or emotion
2. Used in medical contexts to describe organs or tissues located deep within the body; in a philosophical sense, it refers to ideas or feelings that are intensely deep or thoughtful
3. Pertaining to physical structures that lie below the surface; additionally, it expresses concepts that are extremely deep, serious, or insightful in nature

Etymology: Latin "profundus" meant "deep" in the most literal sense: it was built from "pro-" meaning "forward" or "before" and "fundus," the bottom or base of something, so the word described something that extends downward from its base. "Fundus" is also the source of English "fund" and "foundation," which suggests the same bottom-level image of a basis that everything rests on. The Latin word passed into English largely as a learned borrowing, and it is most familiar today through "profound," which entered English through Old French "profond" and carried its physical sense of depth into abstract meanings of intellect and feeling. A profound thought is one that reaches far below the surface, and a profound silence is one that seems to go down a long way. Among the other descendants is "profundity," formed in English from the same stem, and the Romance languages preserve the root in forms such as Spanish "profundo" and Italian "profondo." The word's Latin meaning was simply physical, and the abstract senses developed later in English and its neighbours.

Synonyms: deep, profound, intense, abysmal, bottomless

Antonyms: shallow, superficial, surface, trivial, light