Fidelity

Posted by Smokey Stover on November 16, 2004

In Reply to: Fidelity posted by Bruce Kahl 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.

I have no idea what conjugation fido might belong to, but it is surely a verb in Latin. Fido, fisus sum, which according to Lewis and Short means "I trust, put confidence in, rely on." Of course, this is the source of Fido the dog, not necessarily of fido the funny coin. SS