founder

Etymology 1

From Old French fondeur, from Latin fundātor.

noun

1. One who founds or establishes (especially said of a company, project, organisation, state).
   the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg
2. (genetics) Someone for whose parents one has no data.

Etymology 2

From Middle French fondeur, from Latin fundo (“pour, melt, cast”).

noun

1. The iron worker in charge of the blast furnace and the smelting operation.
   The term 'founder' was applied in the British iron industry long afterwards to the ironworker in charge of the blast furnace and the smelting operation. 1957, H.R. Schubert, History of the British Iron and Steel Industry, page 161
2. One who casts metals in various forms; a caster.
   a founder of cannon, bells, hardware, or printing types

Etymology 3

From Middle French fondrer (“send to the bottom”), from Latin fundus (“bottom”).

noun

1. (veterinary medicine) A severe laminitis of a horse, caused by untreated internal inflammation in the hooves.

verb

1. (intransitive, of a ship) To flood with water and sink.
   Amongst the battleships, things are rather different. Barham led a valiant charge, but suffered for it; she will founder under tow in the Thames estuary shallows, eventually being refloated and refitted after the war. 17 October 2018, Drachinifel, 27:33 from the start, in Last Ride of the High Seas Fleet - Battle of Texel 1918, archived from the original on 2022-08-04
2. (intransitive) To fall; to stumble and go lame, as a horse.
3. (intransitive) To fail; to miscarry.
4. (transitive, archaic, nautical) To cause to flood and sink, as a ship.
   I was amazed when we came among the breakers (which to me seemed large enough to founder our ship), to see with what wondrous dexterity they carried us through them, and ran their canoes on the top of one of those rolling waves […] 1744, William Smith, A New Voyage to Guinea, page 167, quoted in The Diligent: A Voyage Through the Worlds Of The Slave Trade, Robert Harms, 2008
   1932, Hart Crane, "From haunts of Proserpine" (Review of Green River: A Poem for Rafinesque, James Whaler But still more disastrous was the storm which foundered his ship in Long Island Sound, swallowing within call of shore his fifty boxes of scientific equipment, his books, manuscripts and funds, the results of years of devoted labor.
5. (transitive) To disable or lame (a horse) by causing internal inflammation and soreness in the feet or limbs.