fundament Look up fundament at Dictionary.com
c.1300, "buttocks, anus," from L. fundamentum, from fundare "to found" (see found (1)). So called because it is where one sits.
"Alle țe filț of his magh ['maw'] salle breste out atte his fondament for drede." ["Cursor Mundi," c.1340]
fundamental Look up fundamental at Dictionary.com
c.1443, "primary, original, pertaining to a foundation," modeled on L.L. fundamentalis "of the foundation," from L. fundamentum "foundation" (see fundament). Religious senses of fundamentalist (1920) and fundamentalism (1923) began in Amer.Eng. with a movement among Protestants c.1920-25 based on scriptural inerrancy, etc., and associated with William Jennings Bryan, among others. Fundamentalist first used in print by Curtis Lee Laws, editor of "The Watchman Examiner," a Baptist newspaper.
" 'Fundamentalism' ... appears to have been used first in connexion with the (American) Northern Baptist Convention of 1920 to describe the more conservative delegates who desired 'to restate, reaffirm, and reemphasize the fundamentals of our New Testament faith.' ... Now 'Fundamentalism' ... appears to describe the bigoted rejection of all Biblical criticism, a mechanical view of inspiration and an excessively literalist interpretation of scripture." ["London Times," Aug. 25, 1955]
Garry Wills, in "Under God" (1990) traces the terms and the movement to the Presbyterian General Assembly of 1910, which drew up a list of five defining qualities of "true believers" which other evangelicals published in a mass-circulation series of books called "The Fundamentals." A World's Christian Fundamentals Association was founded in 1918. Applied to other religions, especially Islam, since 1957.
gin (v.) Look up gin at Dictionary.com
in slang phrase gin up "enliven, make more exciting," 1887, probably from earlier ginger up in same sense, from ginger in sense of "spice, pizzazz;" specifically in ref. to the treatment described in the 1811 slang dictionary under the entry for feague:
... to put ginger up a horse's fundament, and formerly, as it is said, a live eel, to make him lively and carry his tail well; it is said, a forfeit is incurred by any horse-dealer's servant, who shall shew a horse without first feaguing him. Feague is used, figuratively, for encouraging or spiriting one up.