Fidelity

Posted by Bruce Kahl on November 15, 2004

In Reply to: Fidelity posted by platypus on November 15, 2004

: : : : : : : : I think a fido is a coin with error: a coin with a minting error

: : : : : : : : but also seems to be a Mid-20th century Acronym formed from freaks, irregulars, defects, and oddities, can anybody help with the date in which was first used?

: : : : : : : : any other meanings?
: : : : : : : Acronym finder supplies a number of other uses, and verifies freaks, etc.:
: : : : : : : [Dead link removed - ed]
: : : : : : : I haven't found a date of first use yet.

: : : : : : A name for a dog of course. I do find "fido" the acronym in Webster's 1974 Collegiate Ed, which means it's been around for a good while. Coincidentally, I've experienced great difficulty in determining dates words first used; any followup on this very subject appreciated--DH

: : : : : Dale, it seem to me that the people over at wordorigins on ezboard may be good at tracing dates. If the word is a 20th century US word newspaperarchives is good but it is difficult to use and requires a fee to get any useful accurate information

: : : : al, Thank you kindly, I will surely try the former (cuz free)

: : :
: : : My 1948 'American Thesaurus of Slang' gives two definitions of 'fido. One is 'a trustee (prisoner) in a prison'. The other is 'fog intensive disposal of' - probably a WW2 acronym. No origin for the prisoner version.

: : Fido was the name of Abraham Lincoln's dog.

: I wouldn't put any money on this, but I think Fido is derived from Latin for fidelity.

Maybe, but the "o" should't be there.
Here are the offshoots of fides:

fidelis : faithful, loyal, true
fidelitas : fidelity, loyalty, homage.
fidens : confident, without fear, courageous.
fides : trust, confidence, reliance, belief, faith.
fides : promise, assurance, word of honor, engagement.
fiducia : confidence, trust, assurance

I believe the only way for fido to be from fides is by fido to be a verb but verbs which preserve the thematic vowel e or o (in Latin I or u) before the personal endings make up the third conjugation and fid-o (if it existed as a verb) would have to be "fidos" or "fidemos" or somethinorother.

I will have to do more research on this but fido from fides is a good idea but the evidence points away from that concept.

• Fidelity Smokey Stover 16/November/04